Over 9,000 Texans hospitalized for Covid-19 for 2nd day in a row

AUSTIN, Texas — For a second day this week, hospitalizations of people with the coronavirus in Texas topped 9,000, state health officials said Wednesday.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said 9,053 were hospitalized Wednesday. The state reported 9,028 hospitalizations the day before.

Last week marked the first time Texas surpassed a daily count of 9,000 hospitalizations since a deadly summer outbreak.

Texas officials reported 10,930 new coronavirus cases Wednesday after reporting 15,103 a day earlier. Texas has reported more than 1.2 million cases since the pandemic began.

The true number of infections in Texas is likely higher because many haven’t been tested, and studies show people can be infected and not feel sick.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say the death toll in Texas is at more than 23,000, the second highest in the country.

There were 575.3 new cases per 100,000 people in Texas over the past two weeks, which ranks 40th in the country for new cases per capita, according to Johns Hopkins. One in every 300 people in Texas tested positive in the past week.

In El Paso, health officials said hospitalizations decreased to 665 Wednesday, but it came as deaths continued to rise and reached a pandemic total of 1,077. Active cases currently numbered 37,912.