Three additional Hopkins County COVID-19 fatalities were confirmed, 37 new cases and 20 recoveries were reported over the last four days in Hopkins County. Fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations were also reported across Trauma Service Area F from Jan. 23-25, according to the Texas Department of State Health Service Jan. 26 COVID-19 updates.
Case Counts
After a day (Jan. 25) in which no new testing and case updates were posted for Hopkins County by Texas Department of State Health Services in the Case Counts, Testing Data and Vaccine Data dashboards, a dozen additional confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported Tuesday Jan. 26, for Hopkins County – including one case reported to be an older confirmed case that had not previously been reported to the state. That’s 2 fewer new cases on Tuesday than the 14 reported on Saturday, Jan. 23, according to the DSHS Dec. 23 and Dec. 26 COVID-19 Case Counts dashboards.
That makes 26 new confirmed cases in the last four days, 42 new confirmed cases in the last seven days and 228 new confirmed cases so far in January. Cumulatively, 1,350 Hopkins County residents have received positive lab-confirmed positive molecular COVID-19 results since March 2020; that’s 3.64 percent of the overall Hopkins County population.
Eleven probable COVID-19 cases have been reported in the last four days for Hopkins County as well, seven on Saturday, one Sunday and three Tuesday. That means 11 additional Hopkins County residents have either tested COVID-19 positive on an antigen test or had a combination of symptoms and a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 without a more likely diagnosis from Jan. 23-26.
That makes 21 additional COVID-19 cases reported in the last seven days and 126 new probable cases so far this month. Cumulatively, since the state began tracking antigen cases, 1,243 Hopkins County probable cases have been reported. That’s 3.35 percent of the overall population of Hopkins County who have been reported to have “probable cases” of COVID-19.
On the other hand, 20 additional Hopkins County residents had recovered from COVID-19 in the last four days, 17 on Tuesday and three on Sunday. That makes 70 recoveries in the last seven days, including 50 recoveries reported on Jan. 21, and 310 during the first 26 days of January 2021, according to the DSHS Jan. 26 COVID-19 Case Counts dashboard. Cumulatively since March, 2,363 of the 2,593 Hopkins County people reported to have COVID-19 have recovered from the virus.
COVID-19 Fatalities
Unfortunately, 91 Hopkins County residents have died as a result of COVID-19, according to the Jan. 26 COVID-19 Case Counts dashboard. That means three additional Hopkins County residents have been confirmed by cause on their death certificates to have died from COVID-19.
Nine of the 91 Hopkins County deaths have occurred in January: two each on Jan. 2 and Jan. 5; and one each on Jan. 3, Jan. 6, Jan. 9, Jan. 14 and Jan. 16.
While that’s only 0.25 percent of the overall Hopkins County population who has died from COVID-19, the fatality rate among COVID-19 patients is 6.74 percent. That’s the second highest fatality rate among confirmed COVID-19 cases in the 9-county area.
Red River County, which includes Clarksville and only about a third of the population Hopkins County does, has had 31 of 363 confirmed COVID-19 positive residents died from the virus. While only 3.02 percent of the population has had COVID-19, 0.26 percent have died. The fatality rate among infected is 8.54 percent, the highest in the 9-county area.County Total Positive Confirmed Cases Confirmed COVID-19 Fatalities % Fatality to Positive Cases Hopkins 1,350 91 6.74 Titus (Mt. Pleasant) 2,452 64 2.61 Hunt (Greenville) 4,719 117 2.46 Lamar (Paris) 2,377 118 4.96 Franklin (Mount Vernon) 417 17 4.08 Delta (Cooper) 129 6 4.65 Red River (Clarksville) 363 31 8.54 Wood 1,559 91 5.84 Rains 334 20 5.99
Only two other counties in the region have had more fatalities, and both have larger populations and confirmed case counts.
In Lamar County, 118 of the 2,377 residents who have had COVID-19 died, that’s 4.77 percent of the population who’s had confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4.96 percent of the infected who have died.
Hunt County has had 4,719 residents who have been confirmed by molecular test to have COVID-19 (4.79 percent). Of those infected, 117 have died, giving Hunt County a fatality rate of 2.48 percent among residents who had confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Wood County, which also has a higher population, matched Hopkins County on Jan. 26 in the number of COVID-19 fatalities. Wood County has now had 1,559 confirmed COVID-19 cases, representing 3.42 percent of the population, including 91 residents who have died for novel coronavirus 2019. That gives Wood County a fatality rate of 5.84 percent among the confirmed positive cases since March.
While Delta County has only had only 129 cases and six deaths, compared to Franklin County’s 417 cases and 17 deaths, that also means Delta County’s fatality percentage is higher, 4.65 percent compared to Franklin County’s 4.08 percent, among confirmed COVID-19 infected individuals.
Hospital Data
Hopkins County/Sulphur Springs Emergency Management reported 21 patients in the COVID Unit at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital-Sulphur Springs on Jan. 26, two more than on Monday and one more than on Friday, but still lower than the weekdays reported the rest of the month. In fact, COVID-19 hospitalizations spiked to 32 on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8.
As of Jan. 25, Trauma Service Area F has been considered to have high hospitalizations due to the percentage COVID-19 hospitalizations comprise of the total hospital capacity for a full month.
While COVID-19 hospitalizations have been at or above the total hospital capacity in TSA-F consistently for 30 of the last 31 days which has required TSA-F to follow stricter COVID-19 measures since Jan. 2, there is some good news. After two solid weeks, the COVID-19 hospital percentage of hospital capacity has fallen below 20 percent. In fact, for the last six days, COVID-19 hospitalizations have remained below 20 percent. Over the weekend, COVID-19 hospitalizations even dipped below the 15 percent threshold over set in GA-32, down as far as 14.81 percent, and has flitted near the 15 percent mark for the last five days: dipping from 22.35 percent on Jan. 19 to 18.09 percent on Jan. 20, 16.87 percent on Jan. 21, 15.76 percent on Jan. 22, 14.81 percent on Saturday, 16.36 percent Sunday and 15.24 percent on Monday.
These lower COVID-19 hospitalization percentages were achieve not only with COVID-19 patient counts below 200 for since Jan. 20 and lower overall hospitalizations as well.
On Jan. 23, the 161 COVID-19 patients in TSA-F hospitals made up 14.81 percent of the total 1,087 hospital capacity, with 584 of the 995 staffed inpatient beds hospitalizations. The COVID-19 patient count rose to 177 on Sunday and 167 on Monday.
Available ICU beds across TSA-F have been a double digit for the past five days as well, with 16 free on Jan. 21-22 and Jan. 24, 12 available on Jan. 23 and 30 available on Jan. 25. That’s the most ICU beds available at one time across the region since Dec. 26, the first day of “high hospitalizations.” COVID-19 hospitalizations have been down across the state for the last time, falling below 13,000 for the past three days.Trauma Service Area F 1/18 1/19 1/20 1/21 1/22 1/23 1/24 1/25 Lab-Confirmed COVID-19 Patients in Hospital 210 236 186 182 174 161 177 167
Testing Data
HC/SSEM, in the Jan. 26 COVID-19 update, reported a total of 8,655 COVID-19 tests have been conducted at 128-A Jefferson St. That means 86 people were COVID-19 tested on Monday and 94 on Saturday. Over the last seven days, 394 molecular COVID-19 tests were performed. Since Dec. 30, 1,687 oral swab tests have been conducted at the free testing site.
The DSHS Jan. 26 COVID-19 Test and Hospital Data dashboard shows a total of 13,736 viral or molecular COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Hopkins County since March 2020, when the pandemic began.
The dashboard also shows a total of 1,618 COVID-19 antigen tests have been conducted in Hopkins County since DSHS began tracking the data, including 49 additional tests conducted over the last four days; and 1,765 antibody tests, including five additional tests conducted from Jan. 23-25 in Hopkins County.
Cumulatively, that’s at least 17,119 COVID-19 tests that have been performed in Hopkins County, with 1,536 of those tests conducted during the first 25 days of January.
Free oral swab COVID-19 testing will continue to be offered from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays in January inside the Red Cross (old Fidelity Express Building) in Sulphur Springs. Free testing is open to anyone regardless of age or address. Registration is required online at www.GoGetTested.com in order to be tested at 128-A Jefferson Street in Sulphur Springs.
Vaccine Data
A total of 1,962 people in Hopkins County had received at least one of the two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 11:59 p.m. Jan. 25.
The first dose of the vaccine had been administered to another 323 people between Jan. 23 and Jan. 25, increasing the total to 1,723 people in Hopkins County who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
(DSHS COVID-19 Vaccine Data dashboard infographics)
According to the DSHS Jan. 26 COVID-19 Vaccine dashboard, the first dose of the vaccine had been administered to 683 people ages 65-79 (314 men and 369 women), 404 people 50-64 years old (143 men and 250 women), 378 people ages 16-49 (117 males and 260 females), 256 people age 80 or older (103 men and 153 women), and two people for whom age was unknown.
Thirty-three additional people had received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Jan. 23-25, increasing the total number of people in the county who have been fully vaccinated with both doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 239 on Jan. 25.
Among the individuals fully vaccinated in Hopkins County as of 11:59 p.m. Jan. 25 were 99 people ages 16-49 years old (27 males, 71 females, and one for whom that information was not available), 80 people ages 50-64 (20 men, 71 women and 2 unknown), 49 people ages 65-79 years (23 men and 25 women) and 11 ages 80 and over (4 men and 7 women).
(DSHS COVID-19 Vaccine Data dashboard infographics)
Those receiving the vaccine in Sulphur Springs received the Moderna vaccine. A few healthcare workers and first responders in Hopkins County received the Pfizer vaccine at another CHRISTUS facility before the state allocated doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Hopkins County.
While CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic received 300 doses of the vaccine to administer last week, the only doses allocated to Hopkins County this week are 100 second doses for those who had their first dose of the shot about three weeks ago, according to the DSHS
People can find more information on COVID-19 vaccine at dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/immunize/vaccine.aspx.
Click here for vaccination hub providers, with contact information across the state as well as the DSHS/TDEM map of vaccine providers
A full list of vaccine allocations by week, click here.
