North Texas health officials warn COVID cases slowly rising

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Local health officials say as the East Coast COVID wave appears to be nearing its peak, here at home cases are slowly rising as expected. 

Parkland HHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Chang said people should look at the recent increase as a bump, not a wave or a spike. 

Still, what health officials are seeing is enough for them to ramp up testing and vaccination efforts. COVID testing and vaccines are available to the public at all community health centers by appointment. (Garland locations.)

New predictions from UT Southwestern show across DFW, total testing volumes are near all-time lows, while the number of positive tests is increasing. All DFW counties are currently still at "low risk" but based on these trends, health officials predict hospitalizations might rise again this summer. 

"We of course usually follow the northeast side of the country and these waves that keep coming," Chang said. "As we know four to five weeks ago we started seeing cases rising in New York, New Jersey. While cases are really low right now, let's go ahead and get those vaccines done."

He said the good news is coming out of Omicron, it appears North Texans have a pretty good level of immunity. About 60-70% percent of residents getting at least their primary series of vaccines.