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COVID-19 infections show sharpest increases in counties surrounding Austin

While active COVID-19 infections are up almost everywhere in the Austin region, some smaller counties outside the Capital City show even greater numbers of cases.

AUSTIN, Texas — A KVUE News analysis of Texas Department of State Health Services data posted for Thursday, Jan. 14, shows COVID-19 infections in our 12-county Central Texas region have increased since the first day of the new year.  

We discovered that's the case in seven of those counties where the number of active cases is up.

Gillespie County, where Fredericksburg is located, saw the number of active cases jump 96% since Jan. 1, 2021. There's been a 45% spike in Williamson County since New Year’s Day. Hays County data show a 34% increase in active cases, while there's been a 27% increase in Travis County over the past 14 days.

And State health data also reveal some of the less populous counties in the KVUE viewing area have the greatest number of active cases per capita.

Mason County – with a population of just under 4,000 – has the highest rate of infection. Twenty people out of every 1,000 currently have the virus, according to state tracking.

In second place is Lee County, where the number of active cases is 13 per 1,000 people. Bastrop County has the third highest rate with 11 current cases per 1,000.  

By comparison, Travis County had a five per 1,000 rate of active infections on Thursday, while Williamson County had four active cases per 1,000.

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