COVID-19 updates: Tarrant County reports 152 hospitalizations

PLANO, TX – Tarrant County Public Health said that as of Monday, there are 152 people hospitalized with COVID-19. This statistic has remained between 148 and 163 in the past eight days.

This is the 25th consecutive day the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has been below 200.

The COVID-19 patients make up 3% of the total hospital bed capacity. The county currently has a 14-day average of 151 hospitalizations.

Health officials reported 133 new COVID-19 cases Monday. There have been 254,723 total cases in the county since tracking began in March 2020.

As of last Wednesday, 957,266 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Tarrant County.

Health officials also reported one new COVID-19 death. This was a Fort Worth woman in her 80s.

Dallas County reports 502 new positive cases

Dallas County reported 502 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths Monday. One of the deaths was a person who was on immunodepressants and received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, health officlals said.

The other 12 deaths ranged from a Dallas man in his 40s to a Dallas woman in her 90s.

Collin County reports 80 new cases

There were also 80 new COVID-19 cases in Collin County Monday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. This is up from 55 on Sunday.

Collin County is averaging 69 new COVID-19 cases in the past 14 days.

Collin County health officials say the county currently has 83 COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Monday, down from 107 on Friday. This number has remained below 200 since March 8.

Health officials say COVID-19 patients make 3% of Collin County’s total hospital bed capacity.

Denton County has fewer than 20 hospitalizations for fourth straight day

Denton County health officials announced there are currently 14 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county. This statistic has remained below 20 for four consecutive days.

The county currently has a 14-day average of 25 hospitalizations.

Health officials also announced 219 new COVID-19 cases Monday. There have now been 73,424 total cases since tracking began in March 2020.

There are also currently 16 ICU beds available in the county’s hospitals.

COVID-19 patients currently make up 10% of the current Denton County patients in ICU beds.

As of Monday, 189,744 people in Denton County have received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 135,904 have received their second doses.

All US adults now vaccine eligible

All U.S. adults are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, meeting the April 19 deadline that President Joe Biden announced just two weeks ago.

The milestone came one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that half of all adults in the U.S. have now received at least one COVID-19 shot.

The U.S. passed the 50% mark just a day after the reported global death toll from COVID-19 topped three million, according to totals compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Texas A&M researchers find new BV-1 variant

Researchers at Texas A&M University say they’ve identified a new variant of COVID-19 they’re calling BV-1 for Brazos Valley.

The scientists have only seen the variant in one patient who had mild symptoms that lasted about a month.

The student first tested positive on March 5. A second test on March 25 was still positive, indicating the variant may cause longer-lasting infections than other variants, the scientists say. An April 9 test was negative.

Texas 7-day positivity rate drops to record low

As of Monday, the state’s COVID-19 7-day average antigen test positivity rate by specimen collection date is 2.06%, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

This is the lowest the positivity rate has been since health leaders started tracking it last June.

A county’s positivity rate takes into account both the number of positive COVID-19 results and people tested. The 7-day average prevents outliers from impacting the results.