The COVID-19 trend continues to improve in Tarrant County.
Public Health Director Vinny Taneja says hospitalizations are a mere fraction of what they were during this summer's spike, brought on by the Delta variant.
"Our hospitalizations are at 319 total people confirmed with COVID in the hospital," Taneja told the Commissioners Court this morning. "That's only 7.23% of the capacity."
Pediatric hospitalizations are also way down.
"We're about one-fourth or almost one-fifth of where we were at the peak -- seven kids in the hospital with confirmed COVID," says Taneja. "It's declined to even below what influenza-like activity is doing. there's more people seeking ER care for influenza like symptoms, and COVID-like illness is actually declining below that."
Taneja says the county should soon be able to downgrade its spread level from "high" to "substantial."
"The two factors that determine that are the positivity rate -- currently it's above 10% -- and then the case rate (which) is above 100 per 100,000," Taneja says. "But we're literally at the cusp. If the data holds, I think at some point this week, we should be able to go below and move to substantial spread."
Taneja says there are three things people should do to prevent COVID from yet another surge: "Get vaccinated, wear a mask, and avoid large crowds."
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