TMC officials have identified keeping the testing positivity rate below 5% for two consecutive weeks at one of three standards that would demonstrate community control of the coronavirus. The other two involve tracking the number of daily new cases and the effective reproduction rate, which measures how many new people on average are infected by each person who contracts the virus. As of Sept. 12, none of the standards had been met in the Greater Houston area, but both the positivity rate and the effective reproduction rate were trending in the right direction.
Another 1,411 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the Sept. 12-13 weekend along with 19 deaths caused by the coronavirus, according to public health departments in Harris County and the city of Houston. The seven-day rolling average of new cases confirmed per day has hovered in the 600s over the past week after spending the previous week in the 800-1,000 range.
The total number of cases in the county now stands at 116,172 with 14,094 active cases, 100,538 recovered cases and 1,538 deaths.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in Harris County hospitals continued to fall over the weekend, according to data being tracked by the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council. The number of patients in general wards has remained flat over the past week, but the number of patients in intensive care units has fallen to 195 as of Sept. 13, down from 234 on Sept. 11 and 245 one week ago on Sept. 6.
