Maverick County Reports 13 New Positive COVID-19 Cases as Local Physicians Plead With Citizens to Wear Face Masks, Wash Hands, and Practice Social Distancing. Total Cases Now at 295.
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
Maverick County is in the midst of an infectious spike of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases since Memorial Day weekend in May 2020 similar to the State of Texas and the United States.
City of Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes announced at the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center press conference held on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, that 13 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases were reported in Maverick County by the Texas Department of State Health Services on June 24, raising the total number to 295 cases.
Mayor Sifuentes stated a total of 5,202 people in Maverick County have been administered the COVID-19 virus test with 4,202 negative results, 295 positive results, 705 waiting for test results, 81 have recovered, 212 remain active with the virus, two have died from COVID-19 in the community, and the positivity rate increased to 5.7 percent.
Mayor Sifuentes noted that the Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens, Jr. (Del Rio) called him to notify him that San Antonio, Texas hospitals were not accepting patient transfers from communities outside of San Antonio because they were overwhelmed with positive COVID-19 patients, citing that a Del Rio male patient who needed to be transferred was not accepted by any of the hospitals in San Antonio.
Eagle Pass and Maverick County Local Health Authority Dr. Victoriano Valdez addressed the citizens of Maverick County during the live broadcast of the press conference and pleaded with people to wear a face mask when in public, wash one’s hands regularly, and practice social distancing-six (6) feet, and limit travel to only essential matters.
Dr. Valdez highlighted three facts related to the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) the more testing is done, the more positive cases will be found; 2) the less people do not wear a face mask, the higher the contagious rate will be; and 3) the more people are infected with COVID-19, the more people will end up in the hospital and the higher the mortality rate will be.
Dr. Valdez stated that “we all need to be responsible by staying at home and avoid unnecessary risks.”
Dr. Sergio Zamora, Director of the Intensive Care Unit of Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center in Eagle Pass, the sole hospital in Maverick County, stated that the local hospital has 10 Intensive Care Unit Beds available, but that there were currently 12 positive COVID-12 patients with three of them in Intensive Care Unit and two critically ill intubated with ventilators and receiving the blood plasma transfer treatment. Dr. Zamora noted that the local hospital had five intubated patients before, but two were transferred before the freezing of transfer patients. Dr. Zamora added the local hospital manages 14 to 16 ventilators.
Dr. Zamora pleaded with the people of Eagle Pass to respect simple rules: 1) wear a face mask; 2) wash one’s hands; and 3) practice social distancing to stop the community spread of the deadly coronavirus. Dr. Zamora conveyed the seriousness of this lethal invisible and silent coronavirus and the health care management dilemma facing the community.
Dr. Zamora stated “we do not have the capacity to manage 20 patients with ventilators” in the local hospital. “We do not have the physicians and nurses to work” in the Intensive Care Unit nor “we do not have sufficient space to manage 20 patients in the second-floor ICU,” said Dr. Zamora. Dr. Zamora confirmed the Val Verde County Judge’s message to Mayor Sifuentes that currently San Antonio hospitals are not accepting transfer patients because they are saturated with their own patients. Dr. Zamora stated that if people in Maverick County do not follow these simple rules, they might die from COVID-19. This is reality.
Dr. Zamora stated that he had recently visited a local retail business and found that “no one was wearing a mask. No one was respecting social distancing.” He added that people need to take this invisible and infectious coronavirus seriously or they will die.
Dr. Valdez presented a color chart demonstrating the reduction of infection from COVID-19 is reduced by 70 percent when a person wears a mask and down to 1.5 percent when both persons wear face masks. He pleaded with the people of Maverick County to wear face masks in public and be responsible for following the CDC guidelines described above.
The startling revelation of both Drs. Valdez and Zamora’s presentations are the invisible coronavirus is spreading within our community at an alarming rate because people are not respecting the CDC guidelines and not being responsible for their actions and the limited number of ICU beds and ventilators available at the only hospital in the community. Drs. Valdez and Zamora are warning the people of Maverick County that they must follow and respect the CDC guidelines to stop the community spread of COVID-19 in the community or otherwise face serious consequences.
