County sees drop in covid cases, but record deaths

New active cases of COVID-19 continue to drop in Wichita County, while deaths from the disease continue to break weekly records.

New cases last week dropped 211 to 515 for the week, while Wichita County reported 19 deaths from the novel Coronoavirus in the same time period.

This was the second week in a row that deaths from the virus broke records.

Of the 19 deaths last week, 12 were under the age of 70, including one individual in their 30’s; one in their 40’s; three in their 50’s; seven in their 60’s; three in their 70’s and four in their 80’s. One of those those individuals was vaccinated.

With the 515 new cases reported for last week, and a 23 percent positivity rate, the number of active cases in Wichita County reached 1,747 to end the week.

Of the new cases, 80 percent were unvaccinated.

Active cases in the Iowa Park zip code dropped to 146 last week, from 173 the previous week.

The Wichita Falls Wichita

County Health District also reported that 863 people recovered from the Novel Coronavirus last week.

So far this week

By Tuesday afternoon this week, the number of new cases reported since Friday stood at 180, with nine new deaths already reported.

Hospitalizations

As of Tuesday evening this week, 63 Wichita County residents are hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19, 26 of those in critical condition. Overall for the month of September, 54 percent of the hospitalizations have been under 60 years old. Critical cases are in the following age groups:

1-20-29

3-30-39

6-40-49

3-50-59

8-60-69

5 -70-79

School cases

COVID-19 cases reported in the Iowa Park CISD dropped to only six cases in Iowa Park Schools from last Wednesday through Tuesday.

Bradford Elementary (third - fifth grade) reported one student case; W.F. George Middle School (sixth to eighth grades), one student and one staff case; and one student and two staff cases at Iowa Park High School.

Booster vaccines

According to a press release from the Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District Monday, “The Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District will start offering the Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccine on September 28, 2021. The Texas Department of State Health Services has notified vaccine providers that they should begin to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccine to adults in certain groups, in line with federal guidance.

The Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District offers COVID-19 Vaccine, to now include Pfizer booster doses.