Falls County cases still rising
Falls County now has a total of 17 positive coronavirus cases within the County, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.
On June 11, Falls County notified citizens that the county was at a total of 13 cases, even though according to the dashboard, that number was achieved on June 9.
June 11 saw a total of 14 cases in the county, with three recovered cases and 11 active ones.
As of June 14, the total went up to 17 cases, with only four recovered.
There have been 549 tests administered total, which is just over 3 percent of the 17,000+ residents within the county. This is up from the 337 recorded on June 2. There may have been additional testing of Falls County residents administered in other counties.
Numbers across Texas have steadily risen over the last week, with the state recording over 2,500 new cases (the highest recorded number the state has seen since the pandemic began) on June 10.
The rise in numbers is said to be attributed to increased testing availability, but some experts attribute the rise to holiday activities as the state began the second phase of it’s reopening processes in late May.
"In terms of new infections, we are seeing a surge ... in part attributed to activities surrounding Memorial Day weekend, such as gatherings where protective behaviors may have been lax,” Rebecca Fischer, an epidemiologist at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, told the Texas Tribune.
Only seven percent of the United States population has been tested for the virus. The nation had a total of 23,290,724 tests administered on June 12, compared to the nation's total population of 328.2 million.
In Texas, about 268,000 tests have been conducted, which is just over one percent of the state’s 29 million residents. Eleven percent of national tests have come back positive, while a whopping 28 percent of tests administered in Texas have been positive.
Hospitalization across the country from the virus has gone up by 46 percent since Memorial Day as well, though the death rate has averaged the same at 20-25 deaths per day. Texas had a total of 2,166 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in hospitals on June 12, with death rates averaging between 100-110 deaths per day since memorial day.
Just six weeks after hitting the one million case milestone, the United States hit two million total cases and has reached more than 115,000 deaths across the nation.
Though the virus has fallen from the political forefront in lieu of racial tensions around the country, citizens are urged to continue following social distancing practices.
Go to coronavirus.gov for more information on best procedures to protect yourselves and others from the disease. To keep up to date on the everchanging COVID-19 status across the state, head to dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus.