The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reclassified all 16 counties encompassing North Texas as “high transmission” areas as confirmed COVID-19 cases breach the 100 mark for every 100,000 residents over the last seven days.
According to the two community transmission maps created by the CDC, all 11 counties in North logged in over 10% positivity rate as manifested in data on local hospital admissions due to COVID-19.
North Texas is composed of the counties of Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise. Likewise part of North Texas is Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the northern portion of the U.S. state of Texas.
It was not clear though if the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, west of Paris, and north of Waco are included in CDC’s “high transmission” areas. The agency created a community transmission map for the purpose of measuring the level and identifying COVID-19 spread for every county in the U.S.
According to the CDC, from July 19 to 25, Collin County was under code orange, meaning there was “substantial transmission” of COVID-19 but has since been moved to red after it posted the highest vaccination rate in the area.
Oddly though, the CDC gave a premium to the positivity rates and cases per 100,000 to determine the transmission level for a certain week.
Counties deemed as substantial transmission areas are those which have tallied 50-99.9 cases per 100,000 residents and the positivity rate will have ranged from 8-9.99%.
The CDC also reiterated its recommendation for the public to seriously consider the idea of vaccination, use of protective masks in public indoor settings in areas of high or substantial transmission.
Other counties reclassified from code orange to code red (July 26 to Aug. 1) include Red River, Fannin, Clay, Jack, Archer, and Young
“In rural areas with low population densities, multiple counties might need to be combined to increase available data so that reliable inferences can be made,” the CDC guidance stated.
Daily tallies of fresh COVID-19 infections, case rates, and hospitalizations are seen in an ascending direction these past few weeks across North Texas, as the Delta variant continues to wreak havoc in the country.
Dallas County earlier moved the county back to Level Orange on its COVID-19 threat level for unvaccinated people.
The CDC also showed a map covering the last seven days that Tarrant recorded the most number of COVID-19 patients with 14.22%. Other North Texas counties Collin had 11.69%, Denton with 9.79% and Dallas with 8.77%.
Outlying counties of Hunt, Cooke, Hood, Johnson, and Ellis logged in higher figures. Hunt had 30.4%, Cooke with 22.73%, Hood with 33.33%, Johnson with 37.14% and Ellis with 26.78%
Collin County logged in with the highest vaccination rate in the area with 62.57%. Denton pegged at 57%, Dallas at 52.56% and Tarrant County: 50.77%.
