Roxanna Miranda/The Rider Graphic
UTRGV reported 44 new COVID-19 cases between Feb. 4 and 10, according to a university official.
Doug Arney, vice president for Administrative Support Services and chair of the Infectious Disease Committee at UTRGV, said among the 44 were 15 students, 25 staff and four faculty members.
UTRGV updates the number of cases reported for campus individuals weekly through the Confirmed Cases Dashboard. The university COVID-19 Response Team provides the numbers on its website.
Arney said none of the 15 students were in on-campus isolation housing the week of Feb. 4 to 10.
In Hidalgo and Cameron counties, COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
Hidalgo County reported 2,354 cases between Feb. 11 and 17, raising its total to 162,246, according to its website.
The county reported 59 deaths between Feb. 11 and 17, raising its death toll to 3,741.
Hidalgo Countyโs Federal Emergency Management Agency-sponsored testing site at Municipal Park in McAllen will close today.
Carlos Sanchez, director of Public Affairs for Hidalgo County, said free PCR testing services will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Precinct 4 Endowment Center located at 107 N. Sunflower Road in Edinburg.
Sanchez said Hidalgo Countyโs hospitalization rate was 25.14% as of last Thursday, and that anything over 15% is considered to be a high hospitalization rate.
โObviously, it fluctuates,โ Sanchez said in an interview with The Rider last Thursday. โThis number today represents a very slight decrease over the day before and what weโre finding is, as we get towards the end of the week, the hospitalization rate decreases slightly.โ
He said hospitals release patients toward the end of the week to increase capacity during the weekend, when the hospitalization rate โjumps up again.โ
โWe continue to see an upswing in the number of positive cases,โ Sanchez said. โAt one point, that was kind of the primary barometer for measuring how [COVID-19] was affecting Hidalgo County. What weโre looking at now as our primary barometer is the hospitalization.โ
He said hospitalization rates are a โreflection of the sickest of the sickโ and, while the Omicron variant is highly contagious, it has not been as dangerous as the Delta variant, especially for those who are
vaccinated.
โI think the fatality numbers today reflect, kind of, an ongoing trend that those who tend to die, by large, are unvaccinated,โ Sanchez said. โThose who die and have been vaccinated, it is, almost without any kind of exception, because these people had other illnesses at work. โฆ [COVID-19], ultimately, is what is responsible for their death, but had they not had these comorbidities, they probably would have survived.โ
He said 99.99% of Hidalgo County residents age 5 and older have received at least one vaccine and 80.58% have received a second dose.
For updates about county vaccination rates, visit dshs.texas.gov.
Cameron County reported 1,811 cases between Feb. 10 and 16, raising its total to 72,006 cases, according to its website.
The county reported 20 deaths between Feb. 10 and 16, raising the countyโs death toll to 2,131.
Cameron Countyโs FEMA-sponsored testing site will remain open through Tuesday.
Free testing services will be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Tuesday at the Sports Park, located at 1000 Sports Park Blvd. in Brownsville.
Individuals must follow instructions provided by onsite signage and personnel. Test results will be available within three to five business days.
Esmeralda Guajardo, health administrator for Cameron County, said the county is asking residents to continue to report at-home test results.
โWhat Iโm hoping is that people are starting to receive their at-home testing kits and they start utilizing
that as an option,โ Guajardo said. โThe demand for testing has decreased as a whole, and, so, itโs kind of difficult to continue to maintain these testing sites with minimal number of people showing up.โ
Residents of Cameron County can report both negative and positive test results at cameroncountytx.gov.
