Harris Health has no COVID patients, a pandemic milestone
For local Harris County healthcare workers, Good Friday marked a milestone.
The Harris Health System discharged its only COVID-19 patient from the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital Friday afternoon, according to a tweet from the system’s president and CEO Dr. Esmaeil Porsa.
That gave the hospital zero COVID-19 patients for the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the health service stated.
“Today is indeed a GOOD FRIDAY,” they tweeted.
More on HoustonChronicle.com: A brain injury sent a Houston-area baby to the brink of death. Months later, he’s a ‘little miracle’
Although experts anticipate the omicron subvariant, BA.2, will become Houston’s dominant strain of the virus, it is unclear if the rise in cases will cause a surge, according to a March Chronicle report.
BA.2 variant cases account for over half of all cases in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last month.
Locally, average new cases per day have dropped from 594 in the final week of March to 300 as of April 4, according to the Texas Medical Center. While the CDC announced this week that BA.2 is responsible for an estimated 86% of new Covid-19 cases nationwide.