COVID-19 hospitalizations throughout the Rio Grande Valley are starting to decline following a quick climb in hospitalizations in January as the omicron variant continued to spread.
The number of people hospitalized in the Valley due to COVID-19 dropped as of Wednesday to 580, down from the 608 reported the previous day, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services posted on Thursday.
The nearly 30 fewer patients reported Wednesday follows a gradual decline in COVID hospitalizations throughout the region that began last week.
In the wake of holiday travel and gatherings, COVID hospitalizations climbed from 153 on Jan. 1 to a peak of 656 on Jan. 26.
Since then, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID has slowly dropped while also continuing to fluctuate.
Specifically in Hidalgo County, there were 407 patients hospitalized due to COVID, which was an increase from the 403 patients that were hospitalized the previous day.
The 407 patients Thursday included 367 adults and 40 pediatric patients. They also included 103 patients in intensive care units of which 95 were adults and eight were pediatric patients.
On Thursday, Hidalgo County also reported another seven of their residents died due to COVID-related complications including four individuals who were not vaccinated. Their deaths raise the county’s virus death toll to 3,639.
The county also reported 23,736 new cases which included the more than 23,000 backlogged cases the county had already reported Tuesday.
Those approximately 23,000 cases were from the month of January, according to the county.
Of the total 23,736 cases, 21,760 were confirmed and 1,976 were probable cases.
There were also new cases in schools including 27 staff members and 178 schools who tested positive.
Since the beginning of the school year in August 2021, a total of 3,131 staff members and 11,357 students have tested positive.
In Cameron County, five residents died due to COVID and three of them were not fully vaccinated.
The county now has a total of 2,088 recorded deaths due to COVID-19.
Cameron County health officials also reported 747 COVID cases. Those include 264 confirmed cases and 480 probable cases. There were also three cases reported from at-home tests.
Starr County reported 43 confirmed cases and 40 probable cases Thursday while Willacy County reported 13 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases, according to DSHS data.
