COVID-19 active cases have been trending downward since the beginning of the new year and that total took an even sharper decline in the past week.

The number of active COVID-19 cases dropped to 27 on Thursday, Jan. 22. That’s the lowest total since Oct. 19, 2020 – a span of 94 days.

The county’s active case number peaked on Dec. 29 at 88 and has since declined by 61 people.

In the past seven days (Jan. 14-21), there have 72 recoveries and 43 active new cases.

There are two COVID-19 hospitalizations at Pecos County Memorial Hospital and eight additional hospitalizations statewide.

Pecos County’s total number of positive tests since the start of the pandemic is at 964. There have been 4,079 tests conducted and of those tests, 2,874 have come back negative. There are 47 tests currently pending.

Vaccine administration to take place at Pecos County Civic Center

Individuals who received their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that are 65-year-old and older will be receiving their second dose on Wednesday, Jan. 27 starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Pecos County Civic Center.

PCMH CEO Betsy Briscoe said on Friday that there will be 250 people getting the second dose of the vaccine on Wednesday.

In order to safely make that happen in one day, the hospital decided to move the shot location to the civic center.

Individuals receiving the shot will enter the doors on the east side of the building and exit on the west.

Briscoe noted that the hospital should be able to get through the 250 patients by 1 p.m. if all goes as planned and all patients show up in the morning.

The CEO added that the process of Pecos County becoming a hub for the vaccine are moving forward as the PCMH is sending the state paperwork, which includes there plan and details they could give up to 400 shots a day, on Friday.

Currently, there is no timeframe yet on when the 1,200 people on the waiting list that meet the Phase 1B criteria will get their shot but Briscoe thought it may be in approximately two weeks.