PORT ARTHUR, Texas — As Americans gather, travel and vacation in record pre-pandemic numbers, the country may be quietly and rapidly moving towards a summer COVID-19 surge.
Last week was the highest surge of COVID cases Southeast Texas has seen since January.
As of Friday, July 8, 2022, there were 66 new COVID-19 cases in Beaumont and 20 new cases in Mid-County.
Local health departments are encouraging the community to go back to the basics in order to combat infection because many results from at-home test kits are going unreported, meaning numbers could be even higher.
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Director of Health Services with the Port Arthur Health Department Judith Smith encourages everyone to practice precaution when traveling, but it’s truly a matter of containing sub-variants.
“More people are traveling now than before and so we pretty much knew that this would occur. The sub-variances are in operation and do absolutely cross the vaccination lines. What does help though is that people who are vaccinated are reporting less severe symptoms,” Smith said.
Wearing a mask, washing your hands, physical distancing and getting vaccinated or boosted are all ways to prevent yourself from getting sick, but Americans previously infected, or protected by a vaccine, are catching the virus at a worrisome rate.
“People have just kind of resigned to the fact that ‘I had three and so I'm good with that’ but because we are reporting people with Covid who had been vaccinated it's really important for that second booster if you're over 50,” Smith said.
Right now, testing is underway for a vaccine aimed at stopping future mutations. The U.S is expected to roll out a booster targeting Omicron by the fall.
If you want to get you or your child 6 months or older vaccinated, the Port Arthur Health Department is still accepting walk-ins and appointments at the TAMS building in Port Arthur.