Williamson's new dashboard shows total respiratory illnesses down but COVID cases up

A new dashboard launched by the Williamson County and Cities Health District this week shows the total number of reported respiratory illnesses is decreasing while COVID-19 cases are trending up, an official said.

Most of the recent figures posted Thursday on the dashboard are from the week that ended Dec. 16, which is the 50th week of the year. The number of COVID-19 cases reported, however, are from the week that ended Dec. 9 because the district hasn't yet received updated numbers.

"Overall viral respiratory activity appears to be decreasing, however, numbers may be affected by delayed reporting over the holidays and school break," said Deb Strahler, a spokeswoman for the district.

"The overall COVID trend is increasing - week 44 (of the year) there were 342 reported cases, week 46 there were 410 reported cases and week 48 there were 740 reported cases. We look at trends over multiple weeks to determine the activity of illness in the community. We would need to see multiple weeks of lower reported cases to state the level is declining," Strahler said.

There were 656 COVID-19 cases reported during week 49, which ended Dec. 9, according to the dashboard.

The COVID-19 cases reported to the health district do not include results from at-home tests, Strahler said.

The dashboard, which is updated on Thursdays, includes hospital visits by respiratory virus. It also shows the number of available hospital and ICU beds, and new and historical COVID-19 and flu cases by week. It can be found at wcchd.org/flu.

There were 351 hospital visits for respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 in the week ending Dec. 16, compared to 536 visits the previous week, the dashboard showed.

The dashboard also shows there were 516 influenza-like illnesses reported to the district in the week ending Dec. 16, compared to 1,400 influenza-like illnesses reported in the week ending Dec. 9.

Influenza-like illnesses are defined as a patient has a fever and a cough and/or a sore throat, according to the dashboard.

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"Williamson County and Cities Health District would like to stress the importance of prevention – getting vaccinated, staying home when sick or positive for COVID-19, and basic germ-spreading prevention such as hand washing, covering coughs and masking (especially when gathering with others outside your household) is the best defense to reducing illness in the community," Strahler said.

Free flu and COVID-19 vaccinations are available from the health district with or without an appointment. Visit wcchd.org/flu for locations and hours.

The health district's flu surveillance system does not "attempt to capture all cases of influenza or influenza-like illness," said a district news release. "The number of reporters sending in flu reports may vary from week to week. These data should be used to look for trends over time rather than for estimating the total number of cases."

The health district previously had a dashboard, launched in 2020, that showed only information about COVID-19 cases in the county.

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Total number of respiratory illnesses down in Williamson County, Texas