Despite a rapidly falling active case count and new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks, Harris County has kept its coronavirus threat level at "severe," meaning the spread of COVID-19 is still considered uncontrolled in the county.
The main culprit behind why the threat level has not gone down has been a stubbornly high testing positivity rate, county officials said. However, that average testing positivity rate has been on the decline over the past week, according to county data.
The 14-day average for testing positivity in Harris County was recorded at 8.4% as of the most recent data from May 10. The 14-day average has been trending downward since late April, but the trend accelerated over the past week, dropping 1.3 percentage points from a recording of 9.7% on May 3.
The requirements set by the county to lower the coronavirus threat level are tied to testing positivity, daily new cases and hospitalizations, with standards for the latter two having already been met. The last remaining goal is for the 14-day average for testing positivity to fall below 5%, a feat that has yet to be achieved since the pandemic began.
