Galveston County hit a new high in single-day COVID-19 case count increases in late August. However, the county’s weekly percentage of positive cases has since dropped to a rate not seen since late June.
The county reported case positivity rates above 15% for all four full weeks in August. A total of 452 new cases were reported Aug. 27, the highest to date, according to Galveston County Health District’s daily coronavirus email briefings.
Rates then dropped below 8% for the week of Aug. 29. The rate of positive cases has not been below 10% since before the Fourth of July holiday, per GCHD’s dashboard. The briefings are also posted to the health district’s Facebook page.
On Aug. 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and two weeks ago the county opened a drive-thru mass vaccination site. Click here to read more about the vaccination site, and click here to read more about the Aug. 23 FDA announcement.
As of Aug. 27, there have been 1,082 breakthrough cases in Galveston County, per GCHD’s Sept. 1 update. This equates to about 0.65% breakthrough, which is lower than what was expected from studies; more than 165,819 county residents are fully vaccinated, per GCHD.
A total of 39 more coronavirus deaths have been reported by GCHD since Aug. 17. Of those deaths, three people were fully vaccinated and one person was partially vaccinated, per GCHD.
There are 134 county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Sept. 1, per the dashboard. Two of those hospitalized are under the age of 21, and 11 are younger than 31. Case fatality is at 0.9%, and about 5,850 cases are active. Click here to view the dashboard.
Greater Houston COVID-19 updates
The Texas Medical Center reported Aug. 30 that nearly 640 ICU coronavirus patients were being housed in its hospitals, which span over several Greater Houston area counties; this is up more than 7% compared to a week prior, when nearly 600 of those patients were reported, per the medical center’s data dashboard. Click here to read more TMC updates.
In Harris County, leaders will continue to offer $100 to individuals who get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine through Sept. 15, extending the program two weeks beyond its original end date. Click here to read about how daily vaccinations have increased in the county since the incentive program was announced.
The Harris County Commissioners Court created a 69-position COVID-19 division of Harris County Public Health in a unanimous vote Aug. 24. The division will be funded by $17 million from the Public Improvement Contingency Fund and federal COVID-19 relief grants. Click here to read more about the new division.
Hunter Marrow, Emily Lincke and Emily Jaroszewski contributed to this report.
