Editorial: Eagle Pass and Maverick County Should Go To Shelter-In-Place To Avoid Spread of COVID-19 in Community
Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
The novel Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) is sweeping the world like wildfire, including our beloved community of Eagle Pass and Maverick County, Texas. As of March 25, 2020, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world are 438,749 with a total of 19,675 deaths among 172 countries. These numbers are quickly growing exponentially daily. The United States, State of Texas, Maverick County, and Eagle Pass, Texas are not immune to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Although there is no vaccine or cure yet for the COVID-19 virus, Scientists have documented that strict restrictions in social distancing such as requiring people to shelter-in-place or stay at home measures for an extended period of time helps to reduce the virus curve from spreading among communities quicker than any other known measure. Public Health and Medical Associations support the use of shelter-in-place or stay at home orders by local, county, state, and national governments to prevent the significant spread of the COVID-19 virus among communities, while decreasing the number of potential deaths from the virus.
On Saturday, March 21, 2020, Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes and Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo announced the first confirmed positive COVID-19 test of a Maverick County male individual, establishing the inevitable that COVID-19 exists in our community. On Sunday, March 22, 2020, both Mayor Sifuentes and County Judge Saucedo confirmed that the first individual with COVID-19 was infected with the virus within the community (community spread) as this individual had not traveled outside of Maverick County. In other words, COVID-19 is alive and well in Maverick County and spreading within the community.
Since neither President Donald J. Trump nor Governor Greg Abbott have issued a national or state shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order, many local and state governmental entities and leaders have had to grapple with the issue of how best to protect their communities against the spread of COVID-19. Many state governors, county judges, and mayors have had to issue state of disaster public health emergency declarations to fight against COVID-19 from spreading within their communities through shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders. Such an order requires for people to stay at home for a designated period of time to flatten the rising curve of the virus from spreading within a community with exceptions for essential travel and work-related matters. For instance, the states of New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas counties such as Dallas, Harris, Travis, Bexar, El Paso, Tarrant, and Texas cities such as San Antonio, Laredo, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Del Rio, Fort Worth, and others have approved these stricter public health emergency shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders.
While Mayor Sifuentes and County Judge Saucedo have declared a State of Disaster and a Public Health Emergency in the community and issued certain restrictions to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 within the community while doing an admirable job for Maverick Countians, stricter restrictions such as a shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order is required in Eagle Pass and Maverick County to prevent the significant increase of COVID-19 within our community.
Maverick County has an estimated population of 60,000 people. It only has one hospital with 101 beds available. It has less than 60 physicians. Approximately 27% or greater of people in our community are uninsured. About 27% or greater of people in our community live in poverty. An estimated 12% of people are 65 years old or older. Despite the valiant and courageous effort by our medical and healthcare providers, our community has a significant shortage of physicians and healthcare facilities to treat the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our population generally grows daily by 20,000 to 25,000 due to people from Mexico and other countries visiting it. Our community is a major international port of entry between the United States and Mexico with thousands of people coming in and out of the community on a daily basis. Local, state, and federal employees often travel out of town, out of state, or abroad due to work related matters. Travelers outside the community introduced the virus to Maverick County.
The Eagle Pass Independent School District has already suspended classroom instruction indefinitely and is now providing remote instruction to local students. The City of Eagle Pass has temporarily reduced hours or work for certain city offices or departments. Maverick County has similarly temporarily reduced hours or work to certain departments. Many Maverick Countians are already at home or have reduced their activities outside the home. Implementation of shelter-in-place or stay-at-home for a temporary period will cause minimal disruption to our community at this moment, but will provide the best opportunity to prevent COVID-19 from devastating our citizens and community while reducing its community spread.
Our community already had 11 people tested for COVID-19 with one testing positive, four negative, and six awaiting test results. But there are many people who do not get tested. We do not really have an accurate measure of how many people in our community have COVID-19. Some people do not report it to authorities. How many unreported cases do we have or not know about?
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) have issued a public notice to all Americans: Stay Home, Save Lives. “As emergency physicians risk their lives each day battling the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic they have one request of the American people: Stay Home and Save Lives,” said William Jaquis, President of ACEP. “Emergency physicians are working tirelessly to protect as many people as possible. You too can do your part: stay home and save lives. This is the only way to slow the virus and the best strategy to prevent our health system from becoming overwhelmed,” added Jaquis.
“We have to do everything we can to stop the virus from spreading. For most people, that means hunkering down and doing your best to stay at home as much as possible. We have a narrow window to make meaningful action, and that time is now,” said Jaquis.
Time is of the essence in preventing the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Extraordinary circumstances demand extraordinary decisions. Both the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County should issue a shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order to slow and prevent the community spread of COVID-19 in our community.
