AUSTIN, Texas — A few counties showed improvement Thursday as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its weekly COVID-19 Community Levels update.
The CDC COVID-19 Community Levels are updated weekly on Thursday according to virus metrics. Metrics including hospital admissions, hospital beds in use and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area are used to determine the level.
Thursday's update indicated that Mason and Blanco counties moved from the "high" COVID-19 risk category to "medium." Gillespie County also improved, as its risk category dropped to "low" from being "high" just a week ago.
Fayette County was the only county that worsened from last week to this one, going from "medium" to "high" COVID-19 risk.
Meanwhile, more counties remain steady as they maintained at the same Community Level from a week ago. Hays and Caldwell counties remain at "high" while Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Bastrop, Llano and Lee counties remained at "medium."
Dr. David Winter, an internal medicine physician at Baylor, Scott & White, said 75% of the new COVID cases are from the BA.5 variant. He said this variant is more contagious.
Winter encourages people to get the COVID vaccine. He said even if you do contract COVID-19, it will reduce the severity of symptoms and the majority of cases will be mild.
“If you have not got a vaccine in the last 4 to 5 months, it’s time to considering getting one. Get your first vaccine, your first booster or second booster if it’s been 4-5 months since your last one,” said Winter.
Here's a look at COVID-19 case numbers in the area and across the state:
TEXAS
- 7-day average: 8,399 new cases/day
- Down 10% from a week ago
- Up 49% from a month ago
- 16 new deaths
- 87,474 total to date
- 3,454 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, -11 day-to-day
- Up 5% from a week ago
- Up 79% from a month ago
LOCAL
- 7-day average: 731 new cases/day
- Down 8% from a week ago
- Up 46% from a month ago
GRAPHS: COVID-19 data for July 21, 2022
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