Hospitalizations in Texas from COVID-19 have declined since July, with the lowest number yet recorded on Aug. 16, according to data from Texas Health and Human Services.
On Aug. 16, a total of 6,481 people were in hospitals throughout the state, which is a lower number than that recorded on June 30 of 6,533 people in hospitals.
This followed a steady increase in hospitalizations from June 1 until July 22, when the number of patients reached the highest, with 10,893 within the state. This also marked the highest number of hospitalizations within the state since April 4.
The number of patients hospitalized from April 4 all the way to about mid-June remained relatively similar, with relatively low-ranged numbers between 1,000 to 2,000 patients hospitalized at any given time, but started surging rapidly after mid-June, when the numbers jumped from the 2,000 range all the way to 7,000 in the span of half a month. Around July 8, the number started plateauing again, staying around the 10,000 range in the number of hospitalizations.
In order to keep hospitalizations and infections under control, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state-wide mask mandate (pdf) on July 2, in effect from July 3, although counties with a number of cases fewer than 20 are exempt.
Although the order was put into effect from July, the number of hospitalizations still grew until July 22, when the number started going down. July 23 saw a total of 8,858 hospitalizations, and then on July 24 hospitalizations went back up to 10,036, and from then on to August, hospitalizations steadily decreased.
Furthermore, the number of positive rates has also seen its lowest since the beginning of July. On Aug. 16, the number of positive cases was 11.25 percent as opposed to 13.58 percent of positive cases on June 30.
The Texas Health and Human Services also stated that hospitalization numbers as well as hospital capacities are taken from various hospital programs that report their number and data through a coordinated health care system.
However, the number of positive tests could be inaccurate as there is a backlog that needs to be implemented into the system, and so the numbers across both state and individual counties may change.
So far there have been 4,816,487 tests reported in the state of Texas as of Aug. 16.
