Bell COVID-19 threat level moved to low

On Sept. 6, during a national update on COVID-19 at the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said COVID-19 vaccines would be treated similarly to other yearly vaccines.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that looking forward with the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population,” he said.

Fauci continued by saying that 600 million doses of mRNA vaccines have been administered in the United States.

“Through robust safety monitoring systems, we now have an extensive body of safety data as good or better than what we have for any prior vaccine,” he said. “Get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you are eligible in order to protect yourself, your family, and your community against COVID-19 this fall and winter. I certainly will do so.”

Bell cases drop

No deaths have been reported since Aug. 16 on the Bell County dashboard.

Thirty-three new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Bell County Public Health District for a total of 244 active cases.

The county’s incidence rate went down to 67.23 cases per 100,000 residents in the county.

Of the 51,252 cases reported since the pandemic started, 50,086 have recovered, and 922 people died.

The state’s health district’s dashboard showed Trauma Service Area L had 38 of the 1,147 available hospital beds in the area taken up by COVID-19 patients. The service area covers about 512,799 residents in Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Milam, and Mills counties.

School cases

All local school districts in the area have stopped tracking infections in their schools and have removed dashboards from their website after the Texas Education Agency said districts don’t have to post COVID-19 information any more.

Vaccinations, testing

Several places in Temple offer vaccinations and testing, including CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, the Veterans Administration Hospital, and the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center and clinics.