HOUSTON – On Monday, the Greater Houston area reported 1,052 new cases of COVID-19, which was the highest daily count announced. The following day, 807 new cases were reported.
The numbers may be due to a lag in reporting, according to Dr. David Persse with the Houston Health Department.
“For the city of Houston, we aren’t reporting numbers on Sunday," he said. “We do that on Monday along with the Monday numbers so the numbers are a little bit higher.”
Dr. Peter Hotez with Baylor College of Medicine said he is looking at the trends. He said sustained spikes in numbers are something to be concerned about but we aren’t seeing that in the city at the moment.
‘I’m less concerned about a one-day spike and more concerned about what we may see in the summer and fall,’ said Hotez.
Hotez said now that the Houston area has eased up on social distancing there may be an increase in COVID-19 cases in the coming months. He said the most visceral way to monitor that is taking a look at hospitalizations and ICU beds.
A graph from the Texas Medical Center shows a 2% growth for the daily new COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past two weeks, according to Persse.
“That is not a large percentage but it is steady,’ said Persse.
Another Texas Medical Center shows a 16% increase in the number of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, which moved the concern level from “no concern” to “moderate.”
"There isn’t an immediate concern because patients who need a bed, there is a bed for them,’ said Persse.