Texas Medical Center coronavirus updates: Positivity rate, hospitalizations climb as Greater Houston reports nearly 1,000 new cases

There were 559 COVID-19 patients checked in at Texas Medical Center hospitals as of Oct. 29, according to the medical district’s data dashboard.

That number is up since Oct. 19, when the medical center reported 502 COVID-19 patients, over a 10% increase. Still, that number of hospitalizations is down compared to what it was at the start of September, when COVID-19 patient numbers were at 685.

Data collected by the medical center has shown that spread of the virus has continued to grow in the last few weeks: Out of about 2,756 COVID-19 tests performed Oct. 28, 4.2% of those were positive, up from 3.9% on Oct. 17 and 3.5% on Sept. 22. In comparison, when COVID-19 hit a peak in Greater Houston on July 9, 23% of those tested came up positive for the virus.

These numbers come as Greater Houston—defined in the TMC dataset as Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller counties—reported 982 new cases Oct. 29.

Meanwhile, the total number of intensive care units in use has dropped to a little over 1,000 since Oct. 18, a number that includes both ICU and routine surgical beds. However, the number of COVID-19 patients using ICU beds has increased by 15%, at 173 reported as of Oct. 29, up from 147 as of Oct. 18.

There were 106 new COVID-19 hospitalizations reported Oct. 29, higher than the 81 new cases counted Oct. 18. Over the last seven days, Texas Medical Center has reported a 2.8% increase in daily COVID-19 admissions.