The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Fort Bend County dropped down to 358 on Feb. 6, the lowest the county has recorded since mid-December, according to a Feb. 7 update on the COVID-19 data dashboard from Fort Bend County Health & Human Services.

That number of new daily cases—243—was recorded by the county on Dec. 19.

That figure comes as 129,660 Fort Bend County residents are confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

That is an increase of 2.79% in the number of cases in the span of a week when Fort Bend County reported 126,140 cases on Jan. 30. It represents a slowdown in the growth of the number of coronavirus cases in Fort Bend County, which reported 3.38% weekly growth between Jan. 23-30 and 6.49% growth Jan. 16-23.

The county does track the results of two types of COVID-19 diagnostic tests: molecular, also known as Polymerase Chain Reaction, and Antigen. According to the county, only positive results using molecular tests count toward the county’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases.


Of those total confirmed cases, an additional 18,828 Fort Bend County residents have tested positive using antigen tests.

On Feb. 7, the county reported 115,956 people have recovered from the coronavirus, while deaths are now at 1,122.

Hospitalizations

Out of 957 operational general beds available in Fort Bend County, 642 were in use on Feb. 7, according to data from the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council, which tracks hospitalization data for Fort Bend County. Of those, 106 are suspected or confirmed of being used by COVID-19 patients, according to the SETRAC data.


Meanwhile, of the 122 operational intensive care unit beds available in the county, 117 were in use on Feb. 7—22 by patients confirmed or suspected of being COVID-19 positive. That compares to highs of 48 coronavirus patients in the ICU on Aug. 26, 2021, and 53 coronavirus patients on Jan. 19, 2021.

Vaccinations

A total of 1.19 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Fort Bend County by all providers, as of Feb. 7, according to Fort Bend County’s data dashboard.

Of those, 492,285 residents are fully vaccinated,;172,577 residents have received an additional or booster dose; and 69,024 residents are partially vaccinated, having received a single dose of a two-series vaccine.


About 75% of Fort Bend County residents age 5 and older have received at least one dose, and 95% of those are age 65 and older.