The number of active COVID-19 cases has been rising in Harris County and is up by 7,000 since mid-October, according to data from the Harris County Public Health Department.
The active case count hit 29,148 on Nov. 9 after increasing every day since it clocked in at 21,925 on Oct. 17. Prior to that, active cases hit a low point in the 13,000s in early September and were hovering in the low 20,000s to start of October.
The number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed over the week ending Nov. 7 came in at 4,239, on par with the past two weeks and up slightly from the two weeks at the beginning of October. The seven-day average of new cases confirmed in Harris County has been flat as well but ticked up to 667 on Nov. 9 after 625 new cases were confirmed that day, according the Harris County Public Health data.
The testing positivity rate continued its slow ascent over the past week with the 14-day average reaching 8.4% as of the most recent data from Nov. 1. The 14-day average has been rising since hitting a low point of 5.6% on Oct. 4. In Texas Medical Center hospitals, that testing positivity rate was at 4.5% as of Nov. 8 and has remained below 5% for 59 consecutive days. The effective reproduction rate—which measures how fast the virus is spreading in the Greater Houston area—was at 1.03 as of Nov. 8. Any number above 1 indicates the virus spread is increasing, though the Nov. 8 figure suggests the rate of the spread has slowed slightly from one week ago when it was at 1.06, according to TMC officials.The number of COVID-19 patients in Harris County hospitals has been largely flat, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, though a slight uptick can be seen compared to numbers at the end of September and beginning of October.
