Hidalgo and Cameron counties reported 2,563 combined cases of COVID-19 on Monday along with 15 more deaths related to the virus.
Coupled with news of visitations at the Hidalgo County jail being suspended for another month in light of cases increasing, caution continues to be the word throughout the Rio Grande Valley as medical professionals contend with the rising activity.
Of the new numbers reported Monday, 10 of the deaths and 774 of the cases related to the virus were from Hidalgo County.
Monday is the county’s second double-digit death report this month, and it’s the first time a single report broke 700 new cases since August 2021.
Of the 10 fatalities, seven were unvaccinated.
The six women and four men who died ranged in age from their 40s to above 70, and included residents from Donna, Edinburg, McAllen, Mission and Pharr.
Of the new cases, 252 were reported as confirmed and 522 as probable, bringing the county to a total of 13,614 cases, of which 75,051 are confirmed, 53,358 probable and 3,205 suspected.
Local hospitals continue to treat 400 adult patients and 25 pediatric patients with the virus.
About a fourth of those adult patients — 98 — are in intensive care units.
No pediatric patients are in the ICU.
So far, the Texas Department of Emergency Management has reported infusing 5,531 individuals.
The county released 667 individuals from isolation Monday, leaving the net number of active cases at 538.
Schools also continue to report COVID-19 data.
The county added another 71 staff cases and 323 students testing positive to the list Monday, bringing the totals to 3,012 and 10,855 for staff and students, respectively.
More precise data is available on those cases at a school district level.
Many large and medium-sized Hidalgo County school districts report their case activity on a regular basis using a COVID-19 dashboard.
Districts report case data differently, and it’s difficult to compare, but there are some striking statistics in that data.
Sharyland ISD, for instance, has reported 1,722 cases since it began publicizing case data in mid-August last year.
Just 80% of that total was reported in the last 30 days.
PSJA ISD reports a positivity rate of 4.21% for students and 4.97% for staff.
That district actually shows the number of confirmed cases in the district on the decline.
The number of confirmed cases at the district in January appears to have peaked during the week of Jan. 9-15, ticking slightly downward since then.
It was a significant peak. PSJA has been reporting data since 2020, and before January began the most positive cases it reported in a single week was 192, back in August of last year.
During that Jan. 9-15 period the district confirmed 1,114 cases, almost six times as much as that August high.
Cameron County reported a significant amount of pandemic activity as well Monday, adding 1,789 new cases. Of them,1,129 confirmed, 640 probable and 20 from at-home testing.
The county also reported five fatalities related to the virus, consisting of residents from Brownsville, Harlingen, Port Isabel and Rio Hondo.
Only one of those individuals was fully vaccinated. One of them was in his 20s.
