As the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus continues to spread quickly across the state of Texas and the country, the Hill Country, including Kendall County, has seen rising numbers that left Kendall County with its highest number of active cases since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
As of Monday morning, there were 396 active COVID-19 cases in Kendall County, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard. This is the highest number of active cases ever recorded, surpassing the 213-case record set in January of last year. Both numbers are presumed to be tied to holiday seasons.
During his regular COVID-19 update to the Kendall County commissioner Monday morning, Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Fincke said there is a current average of 42,000 cases per day in the state. He said the death rate has dropped to 88 per day, furthering the state health department’s claim that while the Omicron variant is more contagious, it remains less deadly.
Comparatively, Fincke said the recovery to new case rates in the state and Kendall County have reversed from the time before the Christmas holiday – when cases were recovering faster than new cases were being identified. He said the county is averaging about 7.5 recoveries per day but seeing an average of 35 new, active cases per day, meaning new cases are popping up faster than older cases can recover.
Fincke said the positive in all of this is that the new variant is less potent than officials expected in terms of people getting sick, clarifying that while it is more contagious than previous variations, less people are being hospitalized from this virus mutation.
One COVID-19 death has been reported in the county in the past two weeks, he said, putting the current total at 103 deaths. The number had remained at 102 deaths for several weeks.
As of Monday morning, Fincke said 32,067 Kendall County residents have had at least one does of the vaccine and 28,248 residents have had both initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Fincke also said about 24 percent of those eligible in the county have received a booster vaccination, which he said exceeds the state average of 18 percent.
Currently, boosters are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for those who have been fully vaccinated for at least five months and who are 12 years old and over. The CDC recommends in most cases that anyone over the age of 17 receive the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna boosters, but states those aged between 12 and 17 received only the Pfizer booster. Regardless of which vaccine was administered originally, those seeking a booster are encouraged to use whichever is available.
Furthering how unpredictable the spread of the virus rocking the county, state and country is, County Judge Darrel Lux shared an anecdote of a friend who recently attended the national rodeo in finals in Las Vegas – humorously encouraging the audience to imagine how many people were wearing masks there – and another event with between 10,000 and 15,000 people. But he said his friend ended up catching COVID-19 from his daughter-in-law at Christmas afterward.
Lux encouraged people just to be careful, saying it’s their health and their neighbors and friends’ health as well.
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