ODESSA, Texas — Vaccines are being administered by the thousands daily. However, health officials warn that even though COVID-19 positivity and hospitalization rates are trending down, this is no time to relax.
"As quickly as this falls it can rise up again quickly so we should continue to do our part: wear a mask, get vaccinated, wash your hands, social distance, and just be safe out there. That’s what we’ve been doing for such a long time," Russell Tippin, Medical Center Hospital CEO said.
So where do we stand in the fight against this virus? Health departments were seeing around 80 positive cases per day several weeks ago.
That number has dropped down to about between 10 and 15 cases per day. Seeing lower rates offer a glimmer of hope that we might be getting close to being on the other side of the pandemic.
"The volumes and the percentage positive is down to the low teen percentage, 11.7 percent last week so those are good trends. Hopefully indicating that the virus spread is declining here in the community," Russell Meyers, Midland Memorial Hospital president and CEO said.
Something else that health care workers are celebrating? 28,000 people have been vaccinated in west Texas so far.
Doing our part is the only reason we've seen this downward trend according to hospital officials.
"Don’t get relaxed cause you’re seeing that. The only reason we’re seeing that is because of the hard work that everybody does on every level to keep us safe, to make sure that we’re being responsible and we’re just taking care of each other," Tippin said.