The number of deaths linked to the COVID-19 delta variant increased to five this past week in Pecos County.

Jessie Dominguez, the county’s emergency management coordinator, reported that four deaths have occurred over the past 11 days by individuals who tested positive for COVID.

All of the individuals who passed away were unvaccinated. The report shows that the people who passed away were: 46-year-old female (Sept. 1), 91-year-old female (Aug. 29), 64-year-old male (Sept. 3), 69-year-old male (Sept. 1).

The four deaths are in addition to a 31-year-old Pecos County resident who passed away on Aug. 19. The individual was also unvaccinated.

The five fatalities are the only known deaths by Pecos County residents due to COVID-19 complications since the Delta variant spike began on July 28.

Since the recent spike began, DSHS is no longer reporting to specific counties when a resident gets tested, treated, or passes away out of their county of resident.

Dominguez said that Pecos County residents that get tested or treated out of the county no longer get reported to him by DSHS and in turn could cause inaccurate data.

The report on Sept. 7 also revealed that there are 66 active cases in Pecos County as there were nine new cases reported and 13 recoveries.

The number of probable active cases on the east end of the county that were tested at Iraan General Hospital is at 10 as of Sept. 3. The tally is a sharp decrease in COVID cases in the Iraan area, dropping by 24 people (70 percent) in a week’s time.

As of Sept. 7, there have been 127 people test positive for COVID-19 at Fort Stockton healthcare facilities that are vaccine-eligible but have not received a vaccine. There have been 36 people who have tested positive for COVID that were vaccinated.

That translates to 78 percent of people who have tested positive for COVID since July 28 in Fort Stockton who are vaccine eligible have not got the vaccine.

A total of 40 individuals that are residents of Pecos County who are ineligible to get the vaccine (under the age of 12) have had confirmed positive tests.

The number of hospitalizations at Pecos County Memorial Hospital is at six as of Sept. 7.

Vaccine rate slowly increases

Over the past week the number of Pecos County residents who are fully vaccinated has increased by 187 people and the number of individuals who received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has grown by 128 people.

The rise in vaccine numbers increases the one-shot total by Pecos County residents (12 an up) to 68% and the fully vaccinated total to 56 %. There are 13,080 residents of the county who can get the vaccine and 7,330 of those people are fully vaccinated.

PCMH Monoclonal Antibody Therapy underway

Pecos County Memorial gave out their first monoclonal antibody therapy infusion for COVID-19 patients on Aug. 31 and since have given out a total of 13 doses according to PCMH CEO Betsy Briscoe.

All patients have shown signs of steady improvement with no negative reactions to the treatment.

The therapy must be doctor prescribed with certain prerequisites needing to be met in order to receive the 30-minute infusion.