Hidalgo County confirmed another eight cases of the omicron variant were detected in the county, in addition to the five cases of the variant that were previously reported.
The eight people who tested positive for the omicron variant included four males and four females while five of them were adults and three were pediatric patients, according to Carlos Sanchez, a county spokesman.
In one of those eight cases, health officials identified a new subvariant which Sanchez said only meant that the virus was continuing to mutate.
He added the subvariant was no more dangerous than any other variant, noting that the delta variant had as many as 17 subvariants.
While there have only been 13 cases of omicron recorded in the county so far, the county said omicron was considered the predominant variant among current cases.
Eddie Olivarez, the chief administrator for the county’s health and human services department, explained during a news conference Monday that there weren’t more confirmed cases of the variant because testing for it was extremely limited.
“I want to make real clear, only the state of Texas Department of State Health Services laboratory and/or the CDC laboratories at Fort Collins or Atlanta, are the ones that can test for the variant for us here in the Rio Grande Valley,” Olivarez said Monday. “They are the ones that give us that final outcome on it being a delta, a Brazilian, or an omicron.
The confirmation of more omicron cases comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise throughout the entire Rio Grande Valley.
There were 345 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Wednesday, according to data posted Thursday by the Texas Department of State Health Services, or DSHS.
The current number of hospitalizations is a more than 125% increase since the biggest of the month when there were 153 hospitalizations on Jan. 1.
Those currently hospitalized include 241 adults, 81 being treated in intensive care units, and 23 pediatric patients.
Looking just at hospitalizations in Hidalgo County, there were a total of 253 on Thursday, according to a news release issued by the county.
Those hospitalizations reflect a more than 15% increase from the 219 hospitalizations reported the previous day.
Of the 253 hospitalizations reported Thursday, 206 are adult patients and 47 are pediatric patients.
The total hospitalized also include 54 patients receiving treatment in intensive care units. Of those, 49 are adult patients and five are pediatric patients.
The county also reported six COVID-related deaths.
Six people died due to COVID-19 including two in their 30s — an Edinburg woman and a McAllen man — as well as a Mission man in his 50s, a Weslaco man in his 50s, an Edinburg man in his 60s and a Mission man over 70 years old.
Three of those individuals were not vaccinated, the county reported in a news release issued Thursday.
Their deaths raise the total number of COVID-related fatalities in the county to 3,547.
Additionally, there were 320 new cases, including 111 confirmed, 207 probable and two suspected cases.
There has now been a total of 73,297 confirmed, 50,588 probable, and 3,190 suspected cases since the start of the pandemic.
Currently, there are 1,531 active cases.
In schools, there are 45 new cases among staff and 144 new cases among students.
There have now been 1,647 staff members and 5,706 students who have tested positive since the start of the school year in August.
Starr County reported 113 confirmed cases and 32 probable cases on Thursday while Willacy County reported 30 confirmed cases and three probable cases, according to DSHS data.
