“Winter Wave” of Illness Impacting North Texas

DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – Medical experts are warning of a “winter wave” of COVID cases in North Texas.

According to the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, COVID-19 lab positivity for both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing increased to over 10% each showing COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped week-over-week by over 106% across Dallas County and 83% in the broader North Texas region.

According to PCCI, the hospital bed occupancy rate is over 92% because of an uptick in RSV and flu cases combined with the increase in COVID cases.

“We will likely see a couple more jump in cases over the next few weeks and then likely bigger jumps towards Christmas and New Year,” said PCCI Director, Steve Miff. “The magnitude for UK was 2 times and Singapore 4 times from baselines, but both of those regions have higher vaccination rates.”

Dallas Covid-19 Update … first update in a while, which is a good thing, but the trends over the last few weeks are worth noting. Since the November 21st report, positive active cases have increased by 94% for the whole population and 56% for the pediatric cohort. pic.twitter.com/T89Obig65i
— Steve Miff (@MiffSteve) December 6, 2022

Miff noted that just 7.7% of the Dallas population has received the bivalent boosters, compared to 7.7% across Texas, and 12.1% nationally. 25% of residents 65 years and older, and 7% of the above 5 years old population has received a booster.