New infections top 300 for the week in Wichita County
Since March of 2020, Wichita County has seen a total of 16,117 residents from younger than one month old to over 100 years old, receive positive COVID-19 test results. As of last Friday, 344 of those have died as a result of COVID.
As the third wave of the pandemic washes over the area, the numbers of new infections have jumped from the teens per week in June to more than 300 last Friday, with death and hospitalization numbers also rising.
Although Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued mandates against required masking at schools and government buildings as well as prohibiting the ability for local governments to limit capacity in businesses, he is having to take action to mitigate the huge rise in Texas COVID-19 cases. He announced Tuesday he will begin seeking out-of-state healthcare personnel to help with the surge, and is asking hospitals to voluntarily postpone elective medical procedures.
Wednesday morning, Gov. Abbott was publicly urging the state’s unvaccinated to get the COVID shot.
Wichita County numbers continued their recent steep rise last week with 310 new infections reported for the week as of Friday, and four deaths were reported in the same time frame. Three individuals in the 60-69 age group, and one in the 80+ age group, died of the novel Coronavirus last week.
As of Friday, there were 504 active cases in Wichita County.
As of Tuesday evening, 197 new cases had already been reported for the week, an indicator that this week’s numbers will be similar to or higher than the previous.
Do vaccinations help with avoiding COVID-19?
The Wichita Falls Wichita County Health District this week released the percentage of unvaccinated new cases in the county each week since the end of May.
“Unvaccinated cases are absolutely driving this wave of cases,” said Lou Kreidler, Wichita County Public Health Director. “We are also seeing more individuals hospitalized. Last month there were 58 individuals hospitalized for all of July and as of today, 10 days in the month, we have had 61 individuals hospitalized with 75% of those under the age of 60.”
Kreidler continued, “It is alarming to see individuals in their 20’s and 30’s in critical condition for long periods of time in the hospital. COVID doesn’t care how old or young you are or how healthy you are it is an equal opportunity disease.”
Hospitalizations
As of Wednesday morning this week 43 were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wichita County, with 14 of those listed as critical. Those in critical condition as of Wednesday were in the following age groups:
2 20-29
3-30-39
3-40-49
4-50-59
1-60-69
1-70-79
Positivity Rate
Wichita County’s positivity rate (the ratio of confirmed cases to tests) for last week was 25 percent, up from 21 percent last week.
Reinfections and Breakthrough Cases
As of last Friday, Wichita County had a total of 86 reinfections (unvaccinated for COVID, and second time to have it), seven of which are active. They also reported a total of 149 vaccine breakthrough cases, 59 of which are new. Of those, 54 are symptomatic, and four are currently hospitalized with COVID-related symptoms.
Back-to-school concerns
The Texas Education Agency which oversees Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 public education in Texas, released guidance for the school year last week regarding COVID-19 which include three points:
1. Schools don’t have to inform parents of a positive case.
2. School don’t have to conduct contact tracing
3. If a school does contact trace, parents can still choose to send a child to school if they are a close contact of an infected student.
IPCISD Superintendent Steve Moody said this week that Iowa Park schools will be notifying parents when there is a positive case, as they did last year. Also since the beginning of the pandemic, the Wichita County Health District has conducted contact tracing on school infection and will continue.
Moody and School Nurse Jamie Shipp stressed that the schools are continuing to provide a clean and safe envor noment for students and teachers, and encourage good hygiene practices.
“We are excited about the start of another school year,” Moody said Tuesday. “ Our plan is to start the year as normal as possible and provide a safe learning environment for our students. The COVID health protocols we are implementing will help provide for the health and safety of all students and staff. As the school year begins, we will continue to monitor the health situation and communicate any updates or changes as necessary.”
Several school districts - including Dallas ISD, Bexar County and Austin ISD - have announced they will require face masks in their schools, defying Gov. Abbott’s orders.
Who is eligible for vaccination?
All people 12 and older are currently eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Texas. Children who are 12-17 years old are allowed to get the Pfizer vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines are not mandatory for Texas students.
As of Tuesday 40.43% percent of eligible Wichita County residents are fully vaccinated; and 52.23 percent of Texans, according to the Texas DHS website.
“Unvaccinated cases are absolutely driving this wave of cases”
– Lou Kreidler County health director
