COVID-19 in San Antonio: Where the numbers stand on Feb. 15 – KENS5.com

But Tuesday's case total is still far lower than what the community averaged during January's spike.

SAN ANTONIO For the first time since Feb. 7, Bexar County health authorities tallied more than 1,000 new COVID-19 casesa speed bump in a month that has seen daily infection counts steadily declining after a massive January spike exacerbated by the omicron variant.

A total of 1,012 diagnoses were reported by Metro Health Tuesday, one day after brought a new record-low count for 2022. But the figure is still drastically lower than what the San Antonio area contended with nearly every day in January, when more than 4,000 new infections a day were being reported on average.

The seven-day case average increased slightly as a result, to 767. And, for the first time since before the January case surge, Metro Health indicated via its online surveillance dashboards that the local COVID-19 situation was "improving" after the past week's lower case totals. But the community is still in the "Severe" threshold.

The positivity rate has also dropped once again, this time to 17.9% from 25.1% last week. More than 517,000 Bexar County residents have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

COVID-19 hospitalizations also continued their fall, decreasing for an eighth straight day Tuesday to 638. Of those 638 patients (the fewest for our area since Jan. 6), 173 are in intensive care and 99 are using ventilators; both figures are down from Monday.

Meanwhile, four more San Antonio-area residents have died from virus complications, bringing the local total to 5,200.

How Bexar County is trending

Vaccine Progress in Bexar County

The following numbers are provided by San Antonio Metro Health. A full breakdown can be found here.

The CDC states that "when a high percentage of the community is immune to a disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness)," that community will have reached herd immunity, "making the spread of this disease from person to person unlikely."

The City of San Antonio breaks down the vaccination rates by zip code on Metro Health's Vaccination Statistics page.

Coronavirus in Texas

The total number of coronavirus cases in the state since the pandemic began grew by 10,953 on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That total includes 8,000 new confirmed cases and 2,953 new probable cases. More details can be found on this page.

Tuesday's figures bring the total number of Texans diagnosed with COVID-19 to more than 6.475 million.

An additional 228 Texans have died from virus complications, meanwhile, raising the statewide death toll to 81,258 .

Coronavirus symptoms

The symptoms of coronavirus can be similar to the flu or a bad cold. Symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Most healthy people will have mild symptoms. A study of more than 72,000 patients by the Centers for Disease Control in China showed 80 percent of the cases there were mild.

But infections can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Older people with underlying health conditions are most at risk.

Experts determined there was consistent evidence these conditions increase a person's risk, regardless of age:

Human coronaviruses are usually spread...

Help stop the spread of coronavirus

Find a Testing Location

City officials recommend getting a COVID-19 test if you experience fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.

Here's a Testing Sites Locatorto help you find the testing location closest to you in San Antonio.

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COVID-19 in San Antonio: Where the numbers stand on Feb. 15 - KENS5.com