Roberts maintains guarded optimism on COVID

TYLER — The numbers tell the story. Among other things, new case numbers are down in the NET Health survey area on the latest COVID dashboard. NET Health’s George Roberts says the same goes for hospital patient figures, which fell to 200 from the 242 reported last Thursday. Community spread levels are dropping as well. Roberts anticipates the numbers continuing to go down over the next couple of weeks — and he hopes the area will be through with the spread of the omicron variant in the next few weeks. But the entire area remains in the substantial spread category, so Roberts repeats his advice to get your vaccination and stay home when you’re sick. For more information on COVID-19 in East Texas, click here.