TYLER, Texas — The spread of COVID-19 soared during Labor Day weekend in Smith County, bringing more new confirmed and probable cases in a five-day span than the county saw in the months of March through July combined.
The Northeast Texas Public Health District’s twice-weekly report — released on Tuesday this week instead of Monday because of the Labor Day holiday — showed 3,459 new COVID-19 cases since Thursday and 389 hospitalized East Texans at Tyler hospitals, exceeding last week’s peak.
"The numbers are eye-popping," said NET Health public information officer Terrence Ates. "We hope stats like this can start to make a positive difference. We certainly hoped it wouldn’t get to this point. Our hope now is that it doesn’t get any worse."
The county had 3,321 new cases of COVID-19 from the beginning of March through July. NET Health data shows a total of 1,610 new COVID-19 confirmed active cases in Smith County.
Read the full story with our news partners, the Tyler Morning Telegraph.