A low positivity rate is one of three metrics TMC officials are tracking that they say may indicate a declining spread of the virus. The other two metrics include the number of new cases per day in the nine-county Greater Houston area and the effective reproduction rate, which tracks how many new people are infected by each person who gets the virus.
The number of new cases is still higher than the target of less than 200 per day, but the effective reproduction rate has met the target for 10 consecutive days as of Sept. 19.
Another 1,372 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Harris County over the Sept. 19-20 weekend along with 48 deaths caused by the virus. Newly confirmed cases and deaths are not necessarily tied to tests conducted or deaths that occurred on those days. Some cases and deaths are from weeks past and are only now being confirmed due to backlogs.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in Harris County hospitals continued to decline over the weekend, according to data being tracked by the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council. The number of patients in general ward beds fell to 345 on Sept. 20, down from 380 on Sept. 18 and 412 one week ago on Sept. 13.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units fell to 170, down from 186 on Sept. 18 and 195 on Sept. 13.
The total number of active patients with COVID-19 in Harris County was at 16,273 as of Sept. 20. The number of recoveries climbed to 105,835 while the death total stands at 1,706.
