The data may look better this week, but at Tuesday’s weekly COVID-19 news conference, Lubbock officials said they’re looking at it with “cautious optimism.”
The number of people hospitalized with complications of the coronavirus dipped this week, but bed capacity is still limited.
The city reported a hospitalization high point on Nov. 29, when 360 patients tested positive for the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday, 283 people were hospitalized with the virus. Eighty-nine of those patients were in intensive care, according to data from the city.
Lubbock’s Health Authority Dr. Ron Cook explained that the hospital capacity reported daily on the city’s COVID-19 dashboard accounts for staffed beds that are equipped to accommodate these patients.
“We had nine patients last night that didn't have a bed in our hospitals,” Cook said, referring to Monday. “They were in the emergency room, they were admitted to the floor or the ICU but they didn't have a bed because the floors in the ICU or the hospital and the ICUs are full."
Even with fewer COVID-19 patients in need of a room, eight patients were waiting for a bed Tuesday night. The city reported Tuesday that 10 more people with the virus died.
Lubbock’s 14-day rolling testing positivity rate is also down, though Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope highlighted that was likely due to the Thanksgiving holiday. A pre-Thanksgiving spike in testing was followed by a several-day lull.
Twelve days after the holiday, Lubbock and the rest of the country are just now at a point where cases contracted through holiday gatherings would start to impact new daily totals. So far this month, Lubbock has averaged about 344 new cases a day.
The city confirmed over 12,000 new cases of COVID-19 and reported more than 300 deaths in November.
Have a news tip? Email Sarah Self-Walbrick at saselfwa@ttu.edu. Follow her reporting on Twitter @SarahFromTTUPM.
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