Editor’s note: This is the latest information reported by the city of Plano, Collin County, Denton County and the state of Texas through their public reports and dashboards.
Plano has reported more than 900 new cases of COVID-19 cases over the past week as North Texas hospitals continue to serve high numbers of patients, according to state data.
Nearly every day since Nov. 27, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have accounted for more than 15% of total hospital capacity in Trauma Service Area E, which comprises 19 counties in North Texas.
As of Jan. 18, 24.24% of the hospital beds in TSA E were occupied by confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard. Per an October executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott, municipal governments are required to tighten restrictions for most businesses if COVID-19 patients occupy 15% or more of the available hospital beds for seven consecutive days in their specific Trauma Service Area.
On Dec. 3, when Trauma Service Area E passed the 15% threshold for the seventh consecutive day, restaurants and most businesses were required to reduce capacity from 75% to 50%, and bars were required to close. Businesses will be allowed to increase capacity once COVID-19 hospitalizations for the area are below 15% for seven days in a row.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Collin County peaked Jan. 4, with 575 people hospitalized that day. As of Jan. 18, 536 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. This equates to just under 20% of total bed capacity, a decrease from Jan. 4, when this percentage was closer to 21%. Denton County saw a peak of 235 hospitalizations Jan. 11, which decreased to 193 as of Jan. 17. The number of COVID-19 fatalities in North Texas have continued to grow. Since New Year's Day, 48 residents of Collin County have died of COVID-19, according to state data. In the same span of days, 40 residents of Denton County have died of COVID-19. In total, there have been 474 deaths in Collin County and 433 in Denton County.
Collin County had 4,513 estimated active cases of COVID-19 as of Jan. 18, according to state estimates. For comparison, as of Dec. 11, the county's number of active cases was estimated to be 3,987. In Denton County, the state estimates that there were 13,925 active cases of COVID-19 as of Jan. 18.
The seven-day average of daily confirmed cases was roughly 501 in Collin County between Jan. 12-18. The previous seven days saw an average daily confirmed case count of roughly 581, according to the data. The latest numbers show Collin County has had 55,352 total confirmed cases since tracking began in March 2020. A Collin County COVID-19 vaccine waitlist for people who meet the criteria for Texas Department of State Health Services Phases 1A and 1B can be found here. The form takes requests in the order received and lets persons know where they are in line on the waitlist.
As of Jan. 17, 1,109,874 people had received at least the first dose of the vaccine in Texas, according to data on the DSHS dashboard. Of the population of people age 16 and older in Collin County, which totals an estimated 806,242, about 4,559 people have received both doses.
At the city level, 979 Plano residents were confirmed as new COVID-19 cases between Jan. 12-18. This is a slight drop from the previous week's 1,190 new cases in Plano. The total number of active COVID-19 cases in Plano is 1,244 as of Jan. 18. As of Jan. 18 in Plano, there have been 12,708 confirmed total cases of COVID-19 and 11,464 recoveries, the city's dashboard shows.
Plano ISD’s COVID-19 dashboard shows that there were 223 active student cases and 69 active PISD staff cases as of Jan. 15.
In Texas, 10,110 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported Jan. 18, bringing the total since March 2020 to 1,864,249, according to the state's dashboard.
