Kerr County sees COVID-19 cases creep back up

Kerr County health officials say that the county’s latest COVID-19 surge is ‘not going away without a fight’, as local case counts have risen since the county’s last report issued Monday, September 20. Texas Department of State Health Services is confirming that Kerr County has 266 active cases of the virus – up 73 since Monday. Additionally, Peterson Regional Medical Center reported 22 hospitalizations of patients receiving treatment for COVID-19, which is up 2 patients since the start of the week.

The county’s official death toll since the pandemic began has increased by two, putting the confirmed COVID-19 fatality statistic to 113. According to Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas, “It is pretty obvious from these numbers that we are not out of the woods. We ask that everyone practice safety precautions to try to turn this increase in cases and hospitalizations back to the downward trends we were seeing the past few weeks.”

According to Friday’s data by ‘The New York Times’, Texas has had the highest number of new active COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks with 197,816 reported since September 10. The closest state to that is California, which has had 130,293 cases for the same 2-week time period. As of Friday, The U.S. has lost 685,245 Americans to COVID-19.

On September 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended the emergency use authorization of Pfizer vaccines to include a third dose “booster” shot for certain individuals. The CDC endorsed this move on Friday.

Individuals approved as recipients of the third dose are: People 65 years of age and older, people aged 18-64 years at high risk of severe COVID-19, and those aged 18-64 years whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 puts them at high risk for serious complications of COVID-19. Implementation of the third dose rollout will be forthcoming.

As of Sept. 24, there are 22,290 Kerr County residents considered fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Gillespie County is reporting that as of Friday, Sept. 24: 100 active COVID-19 cases, 7 patients hospitalized due to virus complications at Hill Country Memorial Hospital and 70 COVID-19 fatalities since the pandemic began.

Texas DSHS statistics show the state is averaging more than 300 new COVID-19 deaths per day, which is the first time such numbers have been reported since February 9, 2021. Other TX DSHS numbers as of Friday, Sept. 24: 10,773 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 332,764 active cases and 62,469 deaths. There are currently 50.38% eligible Texans who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.