COVID-19 cases more than double in Wichita County
New COVID-19 cases more than doubled in the past week in Wichita County, a spike county health officials are attributing to large holiday gatherings and a low overall vaccination rate.
The Wichita Falls Wichita County Public Health District reported 186 new cases for the week ending December 3, up from 91 cases the week before.
Of the new cases, 38 percent were unvaccinated.
In addition, the Health District reported five deaths from the novel Coronavirus last week.
Of the deaths reported last week, one was in their 30s; two in their 60s; and two in their 80s.
For the week ending November 25, the COVID testing positivity rate had increased to 18 percent.
Active cases in the Iowa Park zip code rose last week, to 34 active cases, of the 327 currently reported in Wichita County.
So far this week
By Tuesday afternoon this week, the number of new cases reported since Friday stood at 98, with one new death reported, a person in their 50s.
As of Wednesday morning, Wichita County reported 12 people hospitalized for
COVID-19, three in critical condition with one being in their 20s.
Wichita County Vaccination Rate
Currently in Wichita County, 62,521 residents eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination have had at least one dose. Of those, 56,027 are considered fully vaccinated by either taking two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the single shot of the J&J vaccine.
In addition, 12,315 have received booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Both the initial vaccine and booster vaccine take 14 days to reach full effectiveness.
Omicron Variant
A new variant of the novel Coronavirus, Omicron, was identified less than two weeks ago in South Africa and has since spread to the United States.
Late Monday, the first individual to test positive in Texas for the Omicron variant was identified in Harris County.
Because it is a very new variant, there is much left to be known, but health districts across the nation are working to learn more.
Lou Kreidler, Wichita County Health Director said of the variant, “I believe in the next week we will see more individuals test positive in Texas and at some point the variant will be here.”
