Laredo’s Weekly COVID Cases Eclipse Last 2 Months Combined – Laredo Morning Times

The data — last updated on Friday — brings Laredo to 336 new positive cases and one COVID-related deaths that were reported since the update three days prior.

These totals give Laredo 1,821 positive cases and three deaths this week. This is a major uptick from last week, nearly three times its 642 positives. And last week was already a significant increase from the 181 positives the week prior and 74 positives two weeks before that.

In fact, this week alone has resulted in more positive cases than the months of November and December (1,454) and made a run at eclipsing the previous three months combined (2,178). And the city’s last two weeks’ 2,463 cases are more than the previous 14 weeks combined (2,302).

LMT is unable to accurately give active cases, as the city’s latest data states that historically there have been more recoveries (57,253) than positive cases (56,276). LMT calculates active cases by taking historical positives and subtracting recoveries and deaths from that total.

The city estimates 2,658 active cases, although it uses a rolling 14-day confirmed positive total instead for calculations after changing its formula on Jan. 1. Exactly one week ago, LMT’s active case total was at 727 while the city estimated 1,087.

Laredo’s rolling seven-day positivity rate is at 9.7%. Texas’ rolling positivity rate is up to a sky high 33.6% while the United States’ is at 26.2%.

These positivity rates continue to skyrocket, with Texas’ as a new high and the U.S. just 0.1 off its high from the day prior. The previous high for a positivity rate in Texas saw the state peak in the first wave at 20.5%, the second wave at 20.6% and the third wave at 18.5%. And the U.S. topped out at 23% during the first wave, with the second wave hitting 13.2% and the third wave 9.7%.

With cases jumping, hospitalizations have increased significantly as well. The Laredo Health Department reports that 39 individuals are hospitalized from COVID-19, including 14 in the ICU. This is the highest total of hospitalizations since the city had the same total on Sept. 27 and is nearly double the 21 reported from last week.

The city announced there have been 3,261 total breakthrough cases — a person with a positive case who was fully vaccinated — with 132 of those individuals being hospitalized and 22 dying.

This does show omicron having a major impact against vaccinated individuals, as that means there have been 1,508 breakthrough cases and 29 of those people hospitalized in just the last three weeks — this week totaled 1,071 breakthrough cases and 14 hospitalizations this week alone.

That means there were more vaccinated individuals to become sick this week than unvaccinated (750). However, it’s important to remember that nearly 9 out of 10 Laredoans are fully vaccinated, meaning the unvaccinated are still getting sick at an extremely higher rate than the vaccinated population.

Overall, vaccinations have shown to be extremely effective against COVID. The city’s first major public vaccine drive happened on Jan. 2 at TAMIU. Since then, there have been 25,982 cases and 458 deaths locally from individuals who were not fully vaccinated — meaning unvaccinated locals had nearly eight times more cases and nearly 21 times more deaths than those who were vaccinated.

Laredo’s COVID-19 hospitalization rate has risen this week up to 4.8%, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services’ most recent data from Wednesday. This is at its highest point since Oct. 13.

With metrics rising, Laredo’s COVID hospitalization rate is now up to 9.7%, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services’ most recent data from Friday. That’s the highest figure since Sept. 24.

While this rate is greatly increased, Laredo still ranks No. 6 out of Texas’ 22 medical regions, putting it in the top third of the state. The lowest figures belong to San Angelo (3.8%) and Wichita Falls (6.8%) while the highest are El Paso (22.2%), Amarillo (21.7%) and Galveston (20.7%).

Laredo’s hospital capacity issues that have plagued it the entire pandemic remain as the city — despite its COVID success — has only six available beds as of Friday, with only two other state hospital regions below triple digits. Meanwhile, the area also has no available ICU beds.

As Laredo is medically underserved and with facilities understaffed, its hospital capacity has been diminished despite being nowhere near its previous high in hospitalizations of 249 in January 2020 when it was receiving help from the state. But state assistance is not enough to make a big dent in Laredo’s hospital capacity, which is why local experts continue to tout being vaccinated as vital, even despite the area’s success in that regard, as its current lack of resources has curtailed that success.

The City of Laredo stated that about 90.1% of the total eligible population has been fully vaccinated. The dashboard does not provide the exact number of individuals who are fully vaccinated or the totals for those partially vaccinated. As for its elderly, the city reports that 93.1% of people age 65 and up are fully vaccinated.

Laredo officials have stated that its eligible population figures are based off U.S. Census data, and due to the city’s past of having its population undercounted, a true 100% figure may be more difficult to identify.

Over the course of the pandemic, 488,759 tests have been administered.