The Texas Department of State Health Services identified two more COVID-19 deaths of Kerr County residents, including one dating to Aug. 31.
The deaths have driven Kerr County's COVID-19 death toll since July 1 to 40 — 20 deaths in August, 20 in September. It may be another two weeks before the full assessment from September is complete.
All of this comes as Texas appears to be on the downward side of the COVID-19 delta variant outbreak that swamped hospitals across the state. While the number of cases has fallen, the death toll continues to grow up. On most days, DSHS reports 300 deaths or more per day. Since Aug. 1, more than 13,000 Texans have died from COVID-19.
In Kerr County, Peterson Health reported nine new cases and said 12 people were hospitalized at Peterson Regional Medical Center, including five in the intensive care unit. Since Peterson did not acknowledge the deaths, they most likely occurred in San Antonio. DSHS only releases information on the date of death.
The first death happened on Aug. 31 — marking the second fatality for that day — while the second occurred on Sept. 28. People died in 14 of the final 16 days of September — and that number will likely rise in the days to come.
In most years, Kerr County only sees about 10 deaths from respiratory ailments in August and September. In 2021, as COVID-19 surged, that number is 4x what it should be, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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