Amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Tarrant County health leaders have raised the level of community spread to “high.”
Tarrant County Public Health director Vinny Taneja said there are three levels of community spread: low, medium, and high.
The spread was considered “low” between March and past Memorial Day, where it remained for about five weeks. The county health department announced this week that the level of community spread was “high” as of Wednesday.
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“When we were at a low, we were getting 60-70 cases a day. Now, it’s not unusual to see 600, 700 a day,” Taneja said. “Just in the matter of 10, 12 weeks, we have really turned around. On a high day, I think I’ve seen recently as high as 1,300 reported.”
New cases are just one factor in determining community spread, Taneja explained. Hospitalizations are another factor and while there has been an increase, he said it is not at the levels Tarrant County has previously experienced.
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“It’s not as bad as we saw last year in July or even when we saw a huge surge in December, January. That was pretty bad,” he said Thursday.
He said the rise in community spread level should serve as an “early warning” for the general public to stay vigilant. Masks are once again being recommended indoors, along with social distancing.
At Goldwaves, a hair salon in Fort Worth, manager Jenni Hinds said cleanliness has always been a top priority. Long before COVID-19, Hinds said they sanitize every station between guests. As far as masks, they’re not currently mandated but she said stylists will accommodate.
“If one of our guests comes in wearing a mask, we then tell their stylist they have a mask on and the stylist will wear one as well just to make that guest feel comfortable,” she said. “We want our guests to be comfortable and enjoy their experience here.”
Along with masks, Taneja is also recommending the public stay up-to-date on vaccinations. Like many viruses, he said there have been mutations and newer strains of COVID-19. While the vaccines don’t offer guaranteed immunity, he said it’s a layer of protection.
It’s best for an individual to contact a medical provider to see what they may be eligible for, Taneja said.
“A lot of people got their vaccination last year and then there were boosters that came out, so they got those as well. Now we’re almost six, seven months out from having received those boosters. Some of that immunity is starting to fade or ween off as well,” he said.
Taneja also noted, that there are currently remedies that were not available at the beginning of the pandemic.
“Paxlovid is a wonderful drug. It’s an anti-viral, that’s available now very easily. You can call your provider and get a prescription within the first five days. It works really well, reduces the rate of illness for COVID. It improves recovery time,” he said.
This week, Dallas County also reported an increase in case numbers and hospitalizations. It raised its COVID-19 risk level to yellow on Wednesday.
In just one week’s time, the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation said COVID cases in Dallas County climbed nearly 20 percent.
And while those 5,487 reported active cases are still well below Omicron’s peak, they’re nine times higher than what was seen three months back thanks to subvariants BA-4 and BA-5.
“So sub-variants, think of them as the children of Omicron,” said UNT Health Science Center clinical epidemiologist Dr. Shane Fernando.
Fernando said these dominant strains in North Texas are the same currently seen worldwide.
Similar to Omicron, most infected report a runny nose, sore throat, headache, cough and fatigue. Many haven’t had a fever.
“They are highly infectious. They have this characteristic of essentially moving around the vaccines that we have in place. Even if you've had an infection from COVID anytime recently, you still are susceptible to be reinfected with these new sub-variants,” said Fernando.
Still, as hospitalizations across the region increased 19% week over week, Fernando said vaccinations and boosters remain key to preventing serious illness.
