The Katy area’s three counties—Fort Bend, Harris and Waller—have released data regarding the number of confirmed positive coronavirus cases within each ZIP code.
Between 221-349 people out of 472,461 residing in seven Katy-area ZIP codes have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to county data and the 2014-2018 American Community Survey five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
This is about 0.05%-0.07% of the Katy-area population, or roughly 50-70 people out of every 10,000.
Across the state of Texas, there are 14,624 confirmed cases, which is approximately 0.05% of the population, according to the Texas State Department of Health and Human Services dashboard of COVID-19 cases.
The total testing numbers for each county is not readily available. The Fort Bend County-run site can test up to 200 people per day, while the four testing sites in Harris County and the city of Houston can test a total of 1,000 per day, officials said. Waller County does not have its own testing site.
In Texas, 146,467 people, or roughly 0.5% of 28.7 million Texans, have been tested as of April 14, according to the state dashboard of COVID-19 cases and to 2018 census data. About 95% of the tests were conducted at public labs.
With 14,624 confirmed positive cases out of 146,467 tests administered, that means approximately 10% of those tested had the coronavirus.
Two Katy-area ZIP codes were among the areas with the highest case counts in Harris County. The Harris County Public Health Department stated demographics, such as age, population and occupation, may play a part for why some ZIP codes have more cases than others.
The department also noted that Katy has a local testing site at Katy ISD’s Legacy Stadium, which provides easy access to testing, meaning that more people may have been tested than in other areas of the county.
HCPD stressed that the ZIP code map is only a snapshot in time, and case numbers will change as more people are tested; if an area does not report a positive case, that does not mean that the coronavirus is not there.
In Fort Bend County, one Katy-area ZIP code is also among the areas in the county with the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases, per the county’s COVID-19 cases dashboard. Katy-area ZIP code 77494 and Missouri City-area ZIP code 77489 have 50 cases each, but Missouri City-area ZIP code 77459 has 64 cases.
