Montgomery County begins seeing slight downward trend from peak in coronavirus cases

The Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management reported during a commissioners court meeting the county is beginning to see a slight downward trend of coronavirus cases in area hospitals as of Sept. 14.

Jason Millsaps, executive director of homeland security and emergency management, said a nurse contract that has been in place for the past 28 days has been "working great," but noted area hospitals are still mostly full.

"We are fuller now than when we initiated the contract, but we have come down from our peak," Millsaps said. "It has begun to decline."

Millsaps noted area intensive care units are still at a high number of coronavirus cases.

"It will take time for those numbers to drop," he said. "The ICU patients spend an enormous amount of time when they get there, but the general beds are coming down from the high a couple days ago."

Millsaps said the county is at a record high number of cases, but he anticipates the numbers beginning to drop as the positivity rate begins to drop.

Information from the Montgomery County Hospital District indicates that as of Sept. 13, there were 12,781 active coronavirus cases in the county with 363 individuals hospitalized, 94 of which were in intensive care.