SAN ANGELO, TX — New strains of COVID-19 are spreading rapidly this August, but the Tom Green County Health Department cannot accurately gauge the full extent of the outbreak. Staff at Shannon Clinic reported 60 COVID-19 cases in a single day, and Shannon Health confirmed nine patients hospitalized with the virus this week.
According to County Health Department Director Sandra Villarreal, the Texas Department of State Health Services has removed COVID-19 from its list of reportable or notifiable conditions, so the county is no longer required to track infections. Additionally, the widespread use of over-the-counter testing kits—combined with personal decisions by potentially infected individuals to avoid testing—makes gathering reliable data challenging.
The dominant variant currently is the highly contagious XFG, also known as "Stratus." Data from WastewaterSCAN shows that at the Rowlett Creek wastewater treatment plant in Garland (near Dallas), the Stratus variant accounted for 68% of detected COVID-19 on August 18. However, overall levels of respiratory pathogens containing COVID-19 were about one-third of those detected in August 2024.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 14.6% positivity rate from 13,116 tests conducted in the region encompassing Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. But this provides limited insight due to the absence of universal testing. The CDC does track deaths caused by COVID-19, with fewer than 200 reported weekly in August 2025—a minimal figure compared to nearly 27,000 per week in January 2021.
COVID-19 Deaths as tracked by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC does track deaths caused by COVID-19, with fewer than 200 reported weekly in August 2025 (CDC).
COVID-19 can spike year-round but tends to form two distinct annual waves in the U.S.: one in winter around New Year's Day and another in summer, peaking in August. Experts attribute these surges to new variants, waning immunity from prior infections and vaccinations, and increased travel.
In summary, COVID-19 is surging this summer as in previous years, though possibly less severely than last year. Nonetheless, the Stratus variant is highly contagious and can evade immunity from prior infections with other variants.
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