Nine more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported across the Rio Grande Valley on Thursday while another 648 people tested positive.
Of the nine deceased individuals throughout the region, five were Hidalgo County residents, the county reported in a news release. Three of those individuals were not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Their deaths raise the county’s total number of COVID-related deaths to 3,814 since the start of the pandemic.
Hidalgo County also reported 525 people tested positive. Of those, 490 were confirmed positive through a PCR test and 35 were probable which resulted from antigen tests.
The county now reports a total number of 166,056 recorded cases. Those include 102,120 confirmed cases, 60,765 probable and 3,171 suspected.
Additionally, there were 11 new cases among school staff members and 48 new cases among students.
So far, there have been a total of 4,815 school staff members and 16,524 students who have tested positive for COVID since the beginning of the school year in August 2021.
Hospitals throughout the county are continuing to see a decrease in the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19.
There were a total of 140 people hospitalized due to COVID, the county reported Thursday, which included 136 adults and four pediatric patients.
Of those 140 patients, 46 of them, all adults, were receiving treatment in intensive care units.
In Cameron County, four more residents were reported to have died due to COVID-related complications, none of whom were fully vaccinated. This raised the county’s total number of COVID deaths to 2,191.
There were also 81 new cases reported by Cameron County health officials including 56 confirmed cases and 25 probable cases.
Starr County reported 11 confirmed cases and 19 probable cases on Thursday while Willacy County had seven confirmed cases and five probable cases, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
