The Delta variant arrives: Erath County faces surge in Covid with 54 new cases, 2 hospitalizations.
If you were hoping that Covid-19 in Erath County was a permanent thing of the past, think again.
After hearing about a possible surge in new local cases, I reached out to Stephenville’s health authority Dr. Kelly Doggett for the scoop on Monday.
And what a scoop there is.
Dr. Doggett told me there have been 54 new cases in just the past week. Two are currently being hospitalized.
“We are up to 83 active cases now after getting down close to single digits,” Dr. Doggett told Beneath the Surface News. “The predominant strain circulating now is the Delta variant, which is much more infectious and tends to cause more severe disease.
“It tends to affect younger patients more so than the previously circulating strains as well. I’ve seen quite a jump in overall testing and positives at my office over the last couple of weeks.”
Dr. Doggett is continuing to encourage vaccinations.
“Over 99% of hospitalizations and deaths are in the unvaccinated now,” he said. “If you get vaccinated there is still a small chance you can come down with Covid-19, but it is as close as you can get to a guarantee that you won’t wind up being hospitalized or dying from it.
“Pretty straightforward. Pretty simple. Otherwise, we may be looking at another year or two before we reach herd immunity.”
