Maverick County Reports 27 New Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Cases, Raising Total to 250
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
The novel Coronavirus Pandemic is swiftly spreading through Maverick County as 27 new confirmed positive cases were reported on Monday, June 22, 2020, by the Texas Department of State Health Services, raising the total number to 250 cases in the community.
Maverick County like the state of Texas is undergoing a surge of positive COVID-19 cases since Mother’s Day and Memorial Day as Texans relaxed their social distancing and compliance with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC) prevention measures such as wearing a face mask, washing one’s hands regularly, using hand sanitizer regularly, avoid large gatherings of 10 or more people, and limit travel to essential matters.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo announced at the joint City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center press conference on June 22, 2020 the second highest daily number of positive COVID-19 cases in Maverick County with the new 27 positive cases. The highest daily number of positive cases in Maverick County is 31.
County Judge Saucedo stated a total of 4,818 people in Maverick County have been administered the COVID-19 virus test with 3,949 negative results, 250 positive results, 619 waiting test results, 72 people have recovered, 176 people remain active, two fatalities, and eight people are hospitalized due to COVID-19. The positivity rate for Maverick County increased to 5.2 percent.
Texas reported its 11th consecutive day of record-high hospitalizations for COVID-19 on June 22, 2020 with 3,711, placing a stress on Texas hospitals on the availability of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.
Texas recorded 3,280 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases on June 22, 2020, raising its total to 114,881 positive cases. Sadly, 2,192 Texans have died from the deadly COVID-19 virus as of June 22. A total of 1,549,009 Texans have been administered a COVID-19 virus test while another 166,168 have had an antibody test as of June 21, 2020. Of the 114,881 positive cases, 69,190 people in Texas have recovered as of June 22. The positivity rate for COVID-19 in Texas significantly increased to 9.51 percent on June 22.
Since Texas Governor Greg Abbott reopened the economy and businesses on April 29, 2020, the number of positive COVID-19 cases began to steadily increase in Texas and exponentially grew after the Mother’s Day and Memorial Day holidays in May.
Governor Abbott held a press conference on Monday, June 22, 2020 and acknowledged that the rate of infection of new COVID-19 cases has spiraled, stating “to state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas, and it must be corralled.” Unfortunately, Governor Abbott did not announce any new policies or programs to help Texans to reduce the community spread of COVID-19 statewide, except to encourage Texans to practice social distancing and follow the CDC guidelines. Abbott has been criticized by some for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas.
The United States has 21 states showing significant increases of positive COVID-19 cases, including California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and others.
A total of 2,322,100 people in the United States have been infected with COVID-19 and at least 120,300 Americans have died from the deadly virus, according to the New York Times. The surge of positive COVID-19 cases is concentrated in the south, southwest, and western United States, although all 50 states have COVID-19 cases.
Every state, county, and city have been left to handle the surging COVID-19 pandemic by themselves as President Donald J. Trump and his Administration have disengaged themselves from the rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in order to focus on Trump’s re-election campaign in November. The United State has the highest total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the world and accounts for slightly over 20 percent of these cases despite only having four percent of the world population.
