Number of new COVID cases creeping up again in Williamson County
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Williamson County has been slowly increasing since March, a health official said.
On March 18 the county had two new cases reported, which was the lowest number of cases this year, said Deb Strahler, a spokeswoman for the Williamson County and Cities Health District. The county had 78 new reported cases on Wednesday, the latest day that figures were available, according to the district's dashboard.
"There likely are a combination of factors that are attributed to the increase: masking and social distancing restrictions have been relaxed or eliminated, protection from prior infections and vaccinations (especially if not fully-boosted) are waning, and the dominant strain right now is an omicron subvariant that may be able to infect those with prior immunity," said Strahler.
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"Getting fully vaccinated and boosted is the most effective way to prevent severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalization," she said. People can always choose to wear a mask if it makes them feel safer, said Strahler.
The highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in the county since the beginning of the year was 1,727 on Jan. 20, when the omicron strain was surging across the nation.
The health district does not keep track of what strain of the coronavirus people have.
To find a vaccine location in Williamson County, call the health district at 512-943-3600 for a list of walk-in locations, or visit vaccines.gov, or text your ZIP code to 438829 in English or 822862 in Spanish.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ranked the community level of coronavirus in the county as low.
"Levels can be low, medium or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area," according to the CDC.
According to a Texas Health and Human Services website, 73.1% of the county's population ages 5 and older was vaccinated on Friday. The county has 551,668 residents ages 5 and older, according to state data.
Those figures also showed that 403,405 people in the county were fully vaccinated and 456,854 had received one dose. There were 181,655 people in the county who had received a booster shot as of Friday, the state figures showed.
The total number of reported deaths in Williamson County since the pandemic began in 2020 has increased from 869 deaths on March 18 to 935 deaths on Wednesday, according to the health district figures.
READ: Number of new COVID cases plummets in Williamson County
The total number of reported coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic has increased from 110,168 on March 18 to 112,627 as of Wednesday, the district's dashboard showed.
The age group in the county with the highest number of infections since the pandemic is the 18-30 age group, according to the health district. The largest number of deaths in the county are among people ages 81 and older, the district's dashboard showed.
The highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in the county since the beginning of the year was 1,727 on Jan. 20 during the omicron surge, according to the district's dashboard.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: New COVID cases in Williamson County, Texas, rising again
