Hidalgo County confirmed eight additional deaths due to COVID-19 on Thursday, as cases have continued to advance towards the 50,000 mark since the virus’s arrival in the region.
In a press release, the county recorded 380 additional COVID-19 cases in the area, 159 of which were confirmed, 219 probable and two suspected.
This brings the total number of reported cases in the municipality to 49,728, of which 34,827 were confirmed, 14,148 probable and 753 suspected.
Two women in their 70s from McAllen and Pharr are among the recently confirmed deaths, as well as six men in their 40s, 60s and 70s who came from Weslaco, Alamo, McAllen and Mission.
The number of virus deaths in Hidalgo County is now 2,176.
There are 280 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized with 110 in the ICU, and 294 have already been released from isolation.
Of the 297,670 virus tests administered in the county, 247,194 were negative.
In the fight against the virus, the South Texas Health System opened its second COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Wednesday at STHS Edinburg. The first website opened was on STHS McAllen.
According to a STHS press release issued on Thursday morning, the sites are used to inoculate front-line personnel in the hospital system with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at STHS McAllen, as the STHS campus in Edinburg will inoculate with the Moderna vaccine, of which more than 22,000 doses were expected in the Rio Grande Valley this week.
The first shipment of Modern vaccines from the hospital system, about 1,400 doses, already arrived at STHS Edinburg on Wednesday.
A second shipment of the Pfizer vaccine also arrived at STHS McAllen on Tuesday, specifically worth 975 doses.
“Additional vaccine shipments are expected at South Texas Health System McAllen and South Texas Health System Edinburg next week, with more shipments expected in the coming weeks,” says the STHS press release. “Although the initial supply of new vaccines is limited, encouraging news is undeniable that these new vaccines will help society’s fight against the pandemic.”
ANOTHER PLACE IN THE VALLEY
Three more cases of COVID-19 were also confirmed in Willacy County on Thursday, a press release from the county’s emergency management office announced.
The cases there are confirmed by the Texas State Department of Health Services, which has a county count of 1,546 registered virus cases.