More than 18% of North Texas hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients Aug. 19.
As of that date, 18.44% of the hospital beds in Trauma Service Area E, which consists of 19 counties in North Texas, including Collin and Denton counties, were occupied by confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard. That marks the highest percentage for the trauma service area since Jan. 31, when 18.82% of beds were filled with COVID-19 patients. It is also a more than 209% increase from the 5.96% of hospital beds occupied by confirmed COVID-19 patients July 21.
The Collin County dashboard lists 417 hospitalized COVID-19 patients out of the county’s 2,702 hospital bed capacity as of Aug. 19. The Denton County dashboard showed it had more than 25% of its available beds filled by COVID-19 patients as of Aug. 19.
Collin County announced in August 2020 that it would no longer report city-specific coronavirus information. Plano stopped providing city-specific COVID-19 information July 1. As of Aug. 19, there have been 212 total cases reported in Denton County’s portion of Plano, according to the Denton County dashboard. All but 16 of those cases have been classified as recovered, the dashboard shows.
In Collin County, there have been 85,358 confirmed cases and 881 deaths, though 3,466 cases are estimated as active as of Aug. 20 on the DSHS dashboard. In Denton County, 85,457 were confirmed to have had the virus as of Aug. 19, and 638 were confirmed dead. The Denton County dashboard listed 7,821 cases as active Aug. 19.
Plano ISD plans to launch its COVID-19 dashboard Aug. 23. It will be updated on Mondays and will include case counts on campuses, according to the district website.
The majority of the estimated population in five of the six main ZIP codes in Plano has been fully vaccinated, according to totals from the DSHS.
The 75024 ZIP code has the highest percentage of fully vaccinated residents with more than 66%, while the 75074 ZIP code has the lowest percentage at just over 49%.
Nearly 65% of Collin County residents age 12 and older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Aug. 20, according to the DSHS COVID-19 vaccination dashboard. In Denton County, that number sits at more than 59%.
The dashboard shows a combined estimate of more than 1 million people in the two counties that are reported as being fully vaccinated. The DSHS estimates show there are close to 1.5 million residents age 16 and older in Collin and Denton counties, although vaccine appointments are not limited to county residents.
More than 28 million doses have been administered across Texas, and more than 13 million people have been fully vaccinated since manufacturers began shipping vials to the state in December, according to the DSHS dashboard. Since March 29, all Texas adults are eligible to receive a vaccine for COVID-19. On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to those ages 12-15. COVID-19 vaccinations had previously been available only to those age 16 and older.
Collin County Health Care Services announced July 27 the creation of mobile vaccination teams. Residents can request appointments for the free shots.
Denton County Public Health has an interest portal for vaccines on its webpage and allows individuals to schedule appointments.
