Measles cases in West Texas are still rising two months after the outbreak began.

Measles cases in West Texas are still rising two months after the outbreak began.

Health officials are reporting more cases of measles in Texas.

The Department of State Health Services said there have been 198 cases identified in the South Plains region of Texas since January. 23 patients have been hospitalized.

Texas health officials say the number of people with measles has increased to 146 in rural West Texas outbreak that led this week to the death of a school-aged child who was not vaccinated.

The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties.

Efforts to reduce the nation’s persistently high maternal mortality rates involve state panels of experts that investigate and learn from each mother’s death.

Texas health officials insist delta-8 is an illegal substance and has been for 40 years.

HOUSTON – With the winter weather gone, now, the focus for health officials returns to COVID-19 vaccines. United Memorial Medical Center in Houston is set to receive 2,340 doses this week. The hospital has set aside a special wing to administer the vaccine, he said. The delayed doses are now expected to arrive in the first half of this week. On Monday, Houston and Harris County leaders explained plans for a FEMA-supported mass vaccination site at NRG Park.

Local media reported that a similar data dump happened in Florida this week, with around 14,000 tests added from one lab in Miami. The sudden increase in the number of tests made Texas seven-day positivity rate drop from a record-high 24.5% to 16%. The number of reported tests has gone down quicker than the number of new infections reported. State and local officials in Texas have also described a drop in demand for COVID-19 tests. Almost every major data point has come with caveats, sometimes blurring for days the big picture of the pandemic in Texas.

In early June, the states contact tracing workforce numbered about 2,900, and it reached almost 3,200 later in the month before dropping again. If you dont have enough people out there doing [contact tracing], its difficult to stay on top of it. Its kind of like the dams being broken open, said Rodney Rohde, a virologist and epidemiologist at Texas State University. Anton said the states workforce can scale up as needed, including by recalling the DSHS employees who were taken off contact tracing. Our goal is to match the contact tracing staff we have to the workload as closely as possible, Anton said.