Local COVID-19 cases declining as vaccines ramp up
As more vaccines are administered in San Antonio, coronavirus infections and hospitalizations continue to drop.
Nearly 25 percent of adults in Bexar County have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Local officials reported Thursday that 5.1 percent of hospitalized patients in Bexar County have COVID-19. At the height of the pandemic, about 1 in 3 patients in hospitals were severely ill with coronavirus.
“Again, those numbers are trending in the right direction and the hospitals being the ultimate picture of how this pandemic has progressed over the past year,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said during the daily briefing.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported 77 new cases Thursday — a significant decline from January’s surge when about 2,000 new cases were reported each day and less than half as many reported Wednesday.
Thursday was one of the few days recently when new cases have fallen below 100, but Nirenberg noted
that there was a delay in getting test results from some of the Curative labs and the number would likely need to be adjusted.
Area hospitals were caring for 202 patients with COVID-19 on Thursday, compared with 700 or so patients hospitalized in midfebruary.
From Wednesday to Thursday, 37 people with COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals. Of the 202 people hospitalized, 79 were being cared for in intensive care units, while 41 relied on ventilators to breathe.
Officials did not report any new deaths, leaving the death toll at just under 3,000 in Bexar County since the pandemic started about a year ago.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Texas has hovered around 4,500 this week, down from over 8,000 cases three weeks ago, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This trend has been seen across the nation over the past couple of months as the CDC says more than 40 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
So far, the Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to three vaccine-makers. Pfizer-biontech and Moderna require two doses while Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is a single shot.
Dr. Ruth Berggren, an infectious disease specialist at UT Health San Antonio and COVID-19 liaison for County Judge Nelson Wolff, urged people to get their vaccine when it’s available to them.
She referred to a new Pfizer study released last month that not only was the vaccine 95 percent effective at preventing a person from getting sick, but those vaccinated could also drive down transmission rates.
Nirenberg also noted that vaccine appointments scheduled at the Alamodome for April 2 will be rescheduled for April 5 at the same time.