The four major counties in North Texas are all seeing an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, a trend similar to other counties across the state.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is a clear way to track how hard the virus is hitting a certain area because this is not dependent on how many people are getting tested or how many tests are available.
Each section in this story will break down the number of daily hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton Counties.
WFAA looked at COVID-19 daily hospitalizations between now and July 23, when the state updated reporting requirements and data definitions for what it means to be a COVID-19 patient in a hospital.
The main difference is that prior to then, hospitals reported lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients in two fields: MedSurg and ICU.
Since July 23, hospitals are asked to report in MedSurg, ICU, surge and pediatric cases.
Due to the changes in the data fields, it is unknown which hospitals were including lab-confirmed patients in surge beds before this point in time.
Dallas County hospitalizations
Dallas County started to see a flattening of the curve in September when the county averaged 229 COVID-19 hospitalizations a day.
In October, the average has jumped to 359.
The county's hospitals have had at least 400 COVID-19 patients every day since Oct. 19. There are 498 as of Tuesday.
Tarrant County hospitalizations
Tarrant County hospitals have seen similar numbers to Dallas County hospitals.
Tarrant County averaged 242 daily people hospitalized with COVID-19 in September. From Aug. 26 to Sept. 27, these hospitals never had more than 300 COVID-19 patients.
In October, Tarrant County is averaging 423 hospitalized patients a day. The county had 535 COVID-19 patients on Tuesday.
Collin County hospitalizations
Collin County hospitals didn't have as consistent of a September, but the county passed its July 23 total of 181 COVID-19 hospitalizations to 195 on Tuesday.
Collin County averaged 87 daily COVID-19 hospitalizations in September and is averaging 134 in October.
Denton County hospitalizations
Among these four counties, Denton County has had the most ups and downs in its day-to-day count.
The county's hospitals averaged 36 people hospitalized with COVID-19 a day in September and are averaging 55 in October.
