Montgomery County COVID-19 Update for January 25, 2022

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- Montgomery County Public Health District, in conjunction with the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, continues to encourage eligible populations to be fully vaccinated and receive a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who have been vaccinated and/or boosted tend to have mild symptoms and the majority can recover at home. Need to find a vaccine or a vaccine booster shot? Click here for vaccine sites: https://www.vaccines.gov/.

If you are diagnosed with or exposed to COVID-19 , please follow the CDC guidance here: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1227-isolation-quarantine-guidance.html.

MCPHD reports weekly on Tuesdays, but DSHS updates daily at this link: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/45e18cba105c478697c76acbbf86a6bc.

Since our last report on 1/18/2022:

• Total cases of COVID-19 increased by 6,723 to 125,556. *Total cases include confirmed (PCR testing) and probable (antigen testing) cases.

• Deaths of Montgomery County residents have increased by 14 to 1,178 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to data from DSHS.

• 268 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are currently hospitalized in Montgomery County. SETRAC data for regional hospitalizations can be found here: https://bit.ly/3jwhdiV.

Please note, DSHS is no longer posting active and recovered estimates for a number of reasons.

• They were estimates based on research from early in the pandemic on the proportion of people who required hospitalization and the length of time it took hospitalized and non-hospitalized people to resolve their symptoms.

• With changes in the virus, that proportion and timeline has changed, so the resulting calculations were no longer accurate.

• Plus, we now know the risk of transmitting the virus decreases before symptoms are completely resolved.

• Recovery estimates are less meaningful when people have gotten infected and recovered multiple times or may have recovered from one infection but not recovered from a second.

• In moving to providing annual data, there’s no straightforward way to assign active and recovered estimates to a year.

• There are no longer any state executive orders that rely on active or recovered cases.

The Testing Positivity Rate for Montgomery County has decreased to 33%, down from 38% last week.

Source: UT Health, School of Public Health

The COVID-19 dashboard for Montgomery County can be found here: https://coronavirus-response-moco.hub.arcgis.com/.

Do your part to slow the spread of COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself and those around you is to be vaccinated. You should also:

· Get tested if you feel sick.

· Avoid groups of people.

· Practice social distancing.

· Wear a mask in public (over your nose and mouth) or with others who live outside your household. Never share a mask with others.

· Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer frequently.

· Disinfect surfaces in your car and around your home.

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