The county added 402 cases Jan. 15, 297 on Jan. 16, 328 on Jan. 17 and 394 on Jan. 18 as well as 33 backlogged cases. The WCCHD report is delayed by one day to ensure accuracy.
The county also added seven deaths. The total is 261.
Counted deaths are of those who have COVID-19 listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate. The total does not include deaths of people who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard. This method may delay reporting by weeks or even months due to paperwork, county health officials have said.
Due to rapid changes in hospital surge resources and the inability to ensure the accuracy of self-reported local-level hospital data on capacity, the WCCHD dashboard changed its reporting to reflect hospital usage from the Trauma Service Area O, which includes Williamson County and 10 other counties.
In TSA O, there are 752 coronavirus hospital beds available, or 19% of total beds, and 61 ICU beds available, or 11% of total beds, it said.
Williamson County businesses' permitted occupancy levels remain at 50%, and it continues to sit at the red level for coronavirus transmission risk. This is characterized by uncontrolled community spread, according to the WCCHD.
Of the total cases reported, 25,626 are estimated to have recovered, and there are an estimated 1,832 active cases. There are 3,684 total probable cases.
The current rolling seven-day positivity rate, or the rate at which tests for the coronavirus return positive, has decreased slightly to 13.33%.
Recoveries are not reported to the state’s contact tracing and data system; therefore, recovery information is not absolute and is to be used for estimating purposes only, according to the WCCHD website. No trends or other inferences should be drawn from this data, as the numbers posted represent a point-in-time snapshot and may fluctuate throughout the day, it said.
Total cases by cities of residence, including probable cases, according to the WCCHD, are as follows.
- Austin: 2,063
- Cedar Park: 2,724
- Georgetown: 5,848
- Hutto: 1,951
- Leander: 2,164
- Round Rock: 7,554
- Other: 3,739
If the WCCHD is unable to confirm the city of residence after three attempts, the case is deemed “lost to follow-up” and is not included in the above count, officials said.
Here is a breakdown of deaths by city, according to the WCCHD.
- Austin: 11
- Cedar Park: 43
- Georgetown: 60
- Other: 49
- Round Rock: 98
Officials said the county is not legally able to release the specific counts in cities with fewer than 20,000 residents. For more information, such as gender and age breakdowns, visit the county's dashboard.
