Weekly Covid-19 Post No. 61a. I am breaking up today's post into two sub-posts since the latter is a work-in-progress. Below is an updated Table which reports the fraction of those fully vaccinated through 5/14. As my followers know by now, I combine Texas's 254 Counties into one of 5 groups. This not only illustrates the regional variation of vaccine coverage but also the extent to which rural counties (for whatever reasons) reduce the totals achieved by the urban areas. In fact, this week, a number of counties exceeded 50% for the first time: El Paso, Fort Bend (State High), Collin, and Travis. Of these, the Border (El Paso County's Region) is the only geographic grouping comes in at 52%. And, except for the Panhandle (at 33.4%), the other three regions come in at the state average, just under 40%.
One year ago, Texas had peaked in its cities only to have its more rural counties peak in the Summer. I believe that we are in a similar position now - with Memorial Day Weekend coming up soon. The plots show that hospitalizations have returned to what were Phase 2 and Phase 3 levels (Yellow and Peach bars in chart below). So, while we have made progress and should celebrate the numbers, there are parts of the state which are not in the clear yet.
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