COVID: New death, case count new low

A new death in Bandera County was attributed to COVID-19, bringing the death count since the start of the pandemic to 58, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) as of Monday afternoon.

On Sunday, DSHS listed 11 active COVID-19 cases in the county, with that count dropping to three by Monday afternoon. That’s the lowest active case count this year.

Statewide, the total number of new COVID-19 cases of COVID-19 in the past week rose slightly to 23,350, as did new deaths at 846, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Since the pandemic began, 4.28 million Texans have been diagnosed with the virus, which is 14.6 percent of the state’s population.

COVID-19 has taken the lives of 72,760 Texans.

Elsewhere, the number of hospitalized, lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients continues to drop, with 2,736 reported by DSHS as of Sunday, which is a 75 percent decrease from mid-August statistics.

DSHS says the number of fully vaccinated Texans is now at 15.67 million. That number includes children ages five to 11, as they are now eligible for the vaccine.