On the day when Texas reported a record number of new cases, Peterson Health said 102 people tested positive for COVID-19 after the three-day New Year's holiday weekend. There may be a silver lining in the news — omicron will be annoying, but not as horrible as other variants.
With 12 people hospitalized at Peterson Regional Medical Center, omicron is living up to its label as "milder" than the alpha or delta variants. The delta variant proved to be a handful for Peterson Regional Medical Center — keeping most people in the hospital for a week or longer.
By comparison, Peterson reported 74 cases on Sept. 7 — after Labor Day. On the same day, Peterson said it had 46 hospitalizations, and the ICU was full of COVID patients.
The active number of cases in Kerr County is unclear, considering the CDC has lowered the threshold for those infected being off work to five days from 10 days. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 140 active cases. Peterson had more than 150 since Thursday.
Peterson did not break down the number of vaccinated people in their totals. However, the split was about 40% of Peterson's cases last week were of vaccinated individuals. Peterson said of the 12 people hospitalized; one was in the ICU.
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When it comes to COVID-19, Texas is now one of the worst hotspots in the nation, with a record 51,000 new cases reported Monday.
After three days of not reporting due to the New Year's holiday, the Texas Department of State Health Services unleashed its COVID-19 report Monday, with 154,000 new cases since Thursday and more than 7,000 people hospitalized.
However, that wasn't the staggering stat of the day; this was — 33% positivity for those taking molecular COVID-19 tests. That's the highest positivity rate for Texas during the pandemic.
By the way, those rapid-result tests are returning 19% positivity, which is probably low considering the FDA and CDC suggest the omicron variant may not be detectable through those tests.
Hospitalizations rose by 17% through Sunday, and that number includes 1,459 people in intensive care. The virus hospitalized 279 children.
In the San Antonio DSHS region, including Kerr County, more than 440 people are hospitalized, including 19 children.
