El Paso sees significant spike in daily Covid-19 cases, positivity rate

EL PASO, Texas -- There was a significant increase in Covid-19 infections in El Paso reported on Tuesday, according to health department data.

The city's Covid dashboard showed 103 new cases were recorded, which marked the first time over 100 were reported in a day since May 18.

Dr. Edward Michaelson of Texas Tech University Health Sciences of El Paso said the Borderland could hit a third wave by the later this summer.

"It should not be as bad as what we saw last summer, particularly last fall. But I do think we're going to have a late summer surge," Michaelson said.

Data also showed El Paso's 7-day positivity rate was at 9.79% on Tuesday, while it was below 5% a week ago. In fact, El Paso hadn't seen a positivity rate - the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive - this high since Feb. 17.

There were four new virus-related deaths reported Tuesday, which is slightly higher than the daily average as of recent.

There were also 54 El Paso patients hospitalized on Tuesday due to Covid-19; the number of hospitalizations has hovered close to 50 over the past two months.

Michaelson, who also works in emergency medicine at University Medical Center, said the number of in-patients with Covid-19 have doubled.

He has also seen some patients who are vaccinated come to the hospital. Earlier this week, El Paso city and county officials confirmed 277 people have tested Covid-positive so far despite being vaccinated.

"We've seen some of those patients (who are vaccinated) actually in our ER, who we diagnosed and sent home," he said.

"The number that are sicker, sick enough to be in the hospital, predominantly are people who are not vaccinated. So the point of this discussion is to really encourage those people who have not yet been vaccinated to go get your vaccine," he added.

Complete El Paso health department data on Covid-19 can be found online at EPstrong.org.