At the time the dashboard was last updated May 9, officials were reporting an average of 50 new COVID-19 patients admitted to TMC hospitals per day for the week of May 9-15. More recent updates found an average of 224 COVID-19 hospital patients per day for the week of July 4-10, which rose to 240 per day for the week of July 11-17, a 7% increase.
Similar hospitalization counts were most recently seen around mid-February, a time at which they were falling from a peak reached at the start of 2022, according to TMC data.
Although the TMC was not publishing updates over that time, officials were still compiling data on hospitalizations and testing positivity rates, which can be accessed here, along with data on the viral load found in Houston's wastewater, an early indicator of the spread of COVID-19.
July 2020’s wastewater viral load is used by TMC as a baseload. The city of Houston’s average wastewater viral load was 927% baseline as of July 18, or 9.27 times the COVID-19 viral count of July 2020.
Meanwhile, the Harris County Public Health Department is reporting 31,708 active coronavirus cases as of July 18, and the county has been averaging roughly 563 new cases per day for the week spanning July 11-17.
As of July 18, 2.99 million Harris County residents—63.6% of the population—are fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
