Harris County coronavirus count: Active cases drop over Aug. 22-23 weekend

A total of 1,848 new cases of COVID-19 in Harris County were confirmed over the Aug. 22-23 weekend, but active cases in the county dropped by more than 3,000 over that time as other cases recovered.

The total case count now stands at 98,506. The number of active cases dropped from 28,200 on Aug. 21 to 25,196 on Aug. 23. Recovered cases increased from 67,307 to 72,111 over that same time.

Another 48 deaths were confirmed to have been caused by the coronavirus over the weekend, bringing the death toll in the county to 1,197. Due to a lag between when a person dies and when a death is officially attributed to COVID-19, many of newly confirmed deaths were people who died in July or earlier in August.

Of the 34 new deaths in the city of Houston, 18 took place in July and 13 took place in the first half of August. Data was not immediately available for the 14 deaths confirmed in Harris County outside of the city of Houston.

The COVID-19 death toll has increased by 145 in Harris County over the past week, an average of 20.7 deaths per day.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Harris County hospitals dropped over the weekend. In general wards, the COVID-19 patient count fell from 734 on Aug. 21 to 686 on Aug. 23. In intensive care units, the count fell from 376 to 314 over that same time. COVID-19 patients made up about 20.6% of total ICU occupancy as of Aug. 23, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council.

Base ICU occupancy in Texas Medical Center hospitals was about 97% full as of the most recent census Aug. 22.