Week 31's COVID-19 Report

Week 31:

Welcome followers to Week 31. While others discuss how Texas is doing in overall metrics, I break it down according to the part of the state you are in. I avoid the New Cases profiles, since these have been made confusing by all the confounding tests to choose from ; I avoid fatalities profiles since these are 2-4 weeks behind waiting for death certificates to be filed. Instead, I post (see below) only Hospitalization by region and time (color-coded by Governor's Recovery Program). As shown, we are in the 4th week of Phase 4, and there is a divide between Central Texas-Gulf Coast regions and North Texas, Panhandle, and Border. The former are maintaining Hospitalization Levels which correspond to Phase 3, before rollback; the latter are climbing such that the Governor's 15% rule will kick-in and force them to rollback. El Paso was called out for not doing this - and now they are under a 2-week lockdown (Polls are still open for voting). The source of the Panhandle increase, according to a recent article in the LA Times is Texas Tech Cases which put Texas as the worst state for Student Cases. The article states that optional testing combined with the fact that bars and restaurants are open and doing much business will lead to state/nation-wide spreading when Red Raiders travel home for the holidays.