The majority of Comal County's cases continued to be from New Braunfels, where there have been 714 cases reported within the county.
There were two deaths in each county last week. DSHS reported COVID-19 deaths in Guadalupe County on July 1 and July 4. Comal County's Office of Public Health reported deaths of residents on July 1 and July 3.
The public health office was still catching up on COVID-19 reports from the long weekend and remained short-staffed due to coronavirus exposures.
Hospitalizations
Four Comal County residents have been released from hospitals since July 3, reducing the county's hospitalizations to 32.
There was not an accurate count of hospitalized Guadalupe County residents available, but Guadalupe Regional Medical Center had 41 patients admitted due to the coronavirus as of July 6, up 10 since July 1.
The GRMC does not track the county of residence of its coronavirus patients for reporting purposes.
According to a press release issued by the hospital July 7, the rolling seven-day average for hospitalizations was up 39% from the prior week, and six patients were admitted due to the virus every day.
The release stated the GRMC would have the continued ability to care for patients at its main campus if the daily rate of patient admissions did not significantly increase for an extended period of time.
Since the pandemic began, the hospital has increased its intensive care unit capacity from nine to 30, and the South Texas Regional Advisory Council provided it with 10 travel nurses and 10 ventilation kits for COVID-19 patients.
Testing
Comal County reported 7,845 tests have been conducted on county residents, an increase of 1,452 in the last seven days.
The positivity rate in testing for the past seven days was 14.5%, and the overall rate was 12.61%. The rates were down from 30.6% and 12.67% on July 3, respectively.
Residents wishing to be tested for COVID-19 can call Comal County’s dedicated hotline at 830-221-1120 between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Several local health care providers and clinics are also offering coronavirus testing.
