On a day when the United States saw the most COVID-19 cases during the two-year pandemic, Texas saw positivity and hospitalizations climb by double-digit percentages on Tuesday.
With more than 10,000 new cases, the Texas Department of State Health Services said positivity now stands at 22% — the highest in the state's fight against COVID-19. Hospitalizations rose by 11%, with more than 4,400 people hospitalized.
In Kerr County, unvaccinated people drove the rise in hospitalizations, according to Peterson Health officials. Nine were unvaccinated of the 11 people admitted to Peterson Regional Medical Center.
Across Texas, more than 1,000 people were in intensive care, with 60% of those patients on ventilators.
On Tuesday, more than 243,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 across the country. Fueled by increases in Florida, New York and other northeastern states, the fast-moving omicron variant, which the CDC estimates account for 59% of all infections, is expected to strain the U.S. medical system in the coming days. Whether it will overwhelm hospitals, as delta did, remains to be seen.
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See @ScottGottliebMD's post on Twitter.
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There was a myriad of developments regarding COVID-19 on Tuesday.
- Kerrville's Walgreens, H-E-B and CVS sold out of COVID-19 testing kits. H-E-B's Main Street store had a sign taped to its window saying the kits were gone. CVS said they had no idea when they would receive more.
- Peterson Health officials said they do not test for particular variants of COVID-19. Instead, they leave that to Texas DSHS. Peterson Regional Medical Center focuses on treating those sickened — no matter the variant. "We know how to treat it," Peterson spokeswoman Lisa Winter said.
- While people were rushing to get the home testing kits built off the antigen test, the federal Food and Drug Administration said the kits might not detect the omicron variant resulting in a false negative. "Early data suggest that antigen tests do detect the omicron variant but may have reduced sensitivity," the FDA wrote on its website. "The FDA will continue to collaborate with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) RADx program to further evaluate the performance of antigen tests using patient samples with live virus."
- It turns out that Delta Airlines may have been spurred the CDC's decision to reduce isolation from 10 days to five days for asymptomatic people with COVID-19. In a letter obtained by Boston's GBH News, Delta argued that with the increased transmissibility of omicron, but the lesser virulence, the 10-day isolation period could negatively disrupt the companies business.
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See @Tori_Bedford's post on Twitter.
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- When it comes to airlines, the number of canceled flights continued to climb, including at least 12 flights canceled from and to San Antonio International Airport. There were 46 delayed flights — more than half belonging to Southwest Airlines. Across the country, there were more than 2,900 cancellations and more than 4,600 delays. Traveling has become a bear as airlines wrestle to find flight crews.
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