County launches COVID-19 appointment tracker

Brazoria County has a new feature on its website that allows residents to see which medical facilities have appointments open for COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccine information is listed under the county health department tab at bit.ly/3qqevOs.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, only UTMB Angleton-Danbury campus had a wait list available. No other listed providers had vaccine appointments.

Also Thursday, Brazoria County reported three more deaths from COVID-19, an Alvin man in his 30s, an Alvin man in his 90s and a Lake Jackson man in his 60s, county spokeswoman Sharon Trower said in her daily update.

The county reported 135 new cases, including 47 probable cases, and and 262 recoveries. One of the 135 cases is from a test administered more than two weeks ago and two previously announced cases Thursday transferred out of Brazoria County.

In Brazoria County, 30,527 people, or 8.2 percent, have received their first dose of the two-dose vaccine regimen required by Moderna or Pfizer, according to the COVID Act Now database, and 11,702, or 3.1 percent, have also received the second shot.

There were 32 cases in Pearland, nine in Lake Jackson and Angleton, eight in Alvin, six in Sweeny, five in Manvel, four in Brazoria and one each in Clute, Danbury, Liverpool, Oyster Creek and West Columbia. No new cases were reported in Damon or Hillcrest Village.

The most cases among age groups was 16 for those 20 to 29 years old. Fiftenn cases each were added among those ages 10-19 and 50-59, 10 cases in those 40-49, four cases for those age 80 and above, three in ages 70-79 and one case in someone between the age of birth to 9.

Probable cases are people who are exhibiting COVID symptoms and are linked to others who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, usually by living in the same household, as well as those for which antigen tests have provided “presumptive laboratory evidence” of infection, no matter whether the person qualifies as a close contact.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

The vast majority of people recover.