Hospitalizations, active COVID-19 cases down statewide, but prison units in Coryell County continue to spike new cases

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The majority of the active positive confirmed COVID-19 cases within Coryell County are not found among its residents at large, but within two of the six Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional facilities in Coryell County, which continue to see a spike in numbers this week.

Altogether, there are a total of 849 active cases of the virus, with a total of 1,125 inmates having tested positive. 

As of Wednesday, there were 558 active cases in the Hughes Unit, down from 581 on Sunday. 

However, there are now 291 active cases in the Crain Unit, up from 95 earlier this week. The remaining six units located in Coryell County have no active cases. 

On Tuesday morning, the City of Copperas Cove released its weekly update on cases within the city limits. There were 306 total cases, with 67 of those cases still considered active. 

The new cases added as of Tuesday had dates of Aug. 20, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, Sept. 1, and Aug 17. 

One is a male between the ages of 10-19 (Aug. 31), two in their 20s, five in their 30s, one male in his 40s, two in their 50s, one female in her 60s, one male in his 70s, and three age 80-plus. 

Coryell County, however, has not updated its online tracker report since Sept. 3, when there were a total of 552 cases, 208 still considered active. Until recently, county officials received reports from the Texas Department of State Health Services Region 7. Now, DSHS has a new portal for county officials to access updated numbers from DSHS, but so far the county has had problems accessing the site during the changeover, said Coryell County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Harrell.

CCISD: Five active cases as of Sept. 9, nearly four weeks into new school year 

As the Copperas Cove Independent School District’s fourth week of classes comes to a close, there were a total of five active test-confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and staff as of Wednesday.

Two of the initial positive cases added last week, students at Copperas Cove High School, dropped off the list of active cases. But this week, two students at Williams Ledger Elementary School were added to the list as of Wednesday, and two students at House Creek Elementary.

There is still one active case of a staff member of Copperas Cove Junior High School. 

The CCISD website updates its list of active cases whenever a new active test-confirmed case is reported for either a staff member or student. In addition to the list of campuses, the district also lists its “non-campus” facilities to include its District Service & Training Center, Maintenance, Transportation, Warehouse/Child Nutrition Services/Special Education Annex, as well as Technology Services/District Training Facility, all of which have had zero staff member test-confirmed cases. 

The dashboard can be found at ccisd.com under the tab “Parents” (https://www.ccisd.com/290332_2) and will be updated whenever there are test-positive cases, said Wendy Sledd, CCISD’s Director of Communications. 

Coryell County’s tracker showed there were a total of 552 cases in the county itself, with 208 of those cases being active, 338 recovered, and six fatalities, prior to the holiday weekend. 

Lampasas County active cases fall to 16 

Lampasas County reached a milestone on Tuesday, with its active cases at just 16. Counties with no more than 20 active cases do not have to adhere to the order enacted by Gov. Greg Abbott, which required face coverings in public, closed bars, limited restaurants to 50 percent capacity, and limited public gatherings to no more than 10. 

“This does not automatically trigger a change to the Governor’s Order for Lampasas,” Lampasas mayor Misti Talbert stated Tuesday on social media. “The county judge will have to submit paperwork for that waiver. However, I know Judge Hoyer is diligent in his efforts to ensure that the right thing is done for this county. We don’t want to jump the gun when applying for the waiver because if we go back over 20, even for a day, it would trigger a 30-day waiting period before he could apply for the waiver again.” 

Altogether, Lampasas County has a total of 280 total cases, with 255 recovered and nine fatalities, and zero hospitalized with COVID-19.

There were a total of 645,791 total confirmed positive cases in the state of Texas as of Wednesday afternoon, with an estimated 558,894 recoveries. 

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Texas continues to shrink, at 73,205.

So far, there have been 13,692 fatalities from the virus, and there are a total of 3,604 hospitalized statewide, with 46 of those individuals in Trauma Region L, which includes both Bell and Coryell Counties.

The state’s seven-day testing positivity rate on Wednesday was 7.58 percent and has hovered below the 10 percent mark since Sept. 1. The positivity rate is the average of tests which had a positive result within a seven-day time period. 

On June 29, Texas Governor Greg Abbott indicated that the seven-day positivity rate remaining above 10 percent as well as increased hospitalizations were markers for his move to pause the phased reopening of the state. 

COVID-19 cases in Central Texas*

Bell County    5,041 (474 active)

Burnet County 666 (84 active)

Coryell County **596 (418 active)

• Copperas Cove (city) 305 (67 active)  
• TDCJ in Coryell Co 1,143 (558 active)

Lampasas County 280 (16 active)      

McLennan County 6,813 (495 active)

Williamson County 8,092 (96 active)

*As of Wednesday, numbers from Texas DSHS, City of Copperas Cove, Bell County, TDCJ COVID-19 dashboard

**As of Wednesday, numbers from Texas DSHS, excluding TDCJ