Regional hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients once again started to fall Wednesday after a sudden rise on Tuesday.
The Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard showed the regional percentage of hospital beds occupied by patients with COVID-19 dropped by 1.1 points Wednesday. Trauma Service Area L — which includes Bell County — now has 9.35 percent of its beds taken up by patients with the virus compared to the 10.45 percent on Tuesday.
Trauma Service Area L includes the hospitals in Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Milam and Mills counties.
On Tuesday, the Bell County Public Health District reported a slight decrease in active COVID-19 cases to 533, a drop of 47 cases. The incidence rate also dropped to 146.86 cases of the virus per 100,000 residents in the county.
District officials did not report any new deaths from the virus, with the total remaining at 689.
The county has seen a total of 33,343 reported cases of the virus during the pandemic, with 32,121 of those having recovered so far.
On Tuesday, Milam County Judge Steve Young announced the deaths of two additional residents to COVID-19.
The county’s new deaths brings the total to 81 for the entire pandemic, with 32 having died to the virus since its spike in July when the county had only 49 deaths. Young said the county would continue to try and vaccinate as many people as it could.
“We must continue to vaccinate and we will,” Young said. “The good news is that 48.03 percent or 10,130 individuals in the county have now been vaccinated. We thank all of those who have worked so hard to give vaccinations and all of those who have been vaccinated.”
The county, Young said, had a total of 17 confirmed and active cases on Tuesday with seven people currently hospitalized.
Temple Independent School District reported two active confirmed COVID-19 cases on its dashboard Wednesday, with two probable cases on its tracker. The confirmed cases included one at Bonham Middle School and one at Jefferson Elementary.
Belton ISD showed 38 active COVID-19 cases on its dashboard, 12 confirmed and 26 probable cases. The district did not have any cases at four of its 18 campuses, with those including Leon Heights Elementary, Southwest Elementary, Sparta Elementary and Tarver Elementary.
Salado ISD Superintendent Michael Novotny said the district had three active cases in the past week, two students at Salado Middle School and one student at Salado High School.
Killeen ISD showed that it had 83 active cases of the virus on its dashboard Wednesday, with 64 students and 19 staff members.
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