By Sahar Chmais
Nearly 65% of eligible Hays County residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and some have begun receiving their booster shots.
As of Aug. 13, immunocompromised Texans became eligible to receive a booster shot using the the Pfizer vaccine. Since then, more than 9,300 Hays County residents have gotten their booster. The county as a whole has a 64% vaccination rate.
Hays County recently began seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. More ICU beds have become available. Last month, some days passed where Trauma Service Area-O (TSA-O) had a few ICU beds available, and at one point, no ICU beds had remained. TSA-O includes Hays, Travis and nine other Counties.
COVID-related fatalities have reached 386 in Hays County, as of Oct. 18. Deaths related to COVID-19 have also been decreasing.
There are 18 Hays residents in the hospital due to COVID-19, two of which are vaccinated and in the ICU. There are 16 unvaccinated residents in the hospital, 11 of those are in the ICU.
