Maverick County Spikes with 56 New Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Cases and 41 Hospitalized People, Raising Total to 776 Cases
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
Maverick County is in the middle of a spike of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases during the first phase of the deadly virus afflicting the State of Texas, United States, and the world.
City of Eagle Pass Assistant Fire Chief and Co-Director of the Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center, Rodolfo “Woody” Cardona, announced on Thursday, July 9, 2020, at a press conference that 56 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and 41 hospitalized people in Maverick County were reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services, raising the total number to 776 cases.
“The extent of the [COVID-19] pandemic in our community is high,” said Cardona. Cardona stated a total of 7,584 people in Maverick County have been administered the COVID-19 test with 776 positive results, 5,991 negative results, 817 waiting for test results, 490 active cases, 286 recovered, 41 hospitalized, seven deaths due to COVID-19, and the positivity rate has skyrocketed to 10.2 percent as of Thursday, July 9, 2020.
Cardona noted that the City of Eagle Pass Fire Department four EMS Ambulances as well as private ambulance companies are “saturated” with responding to local residents with COVID-19 symptoms, pleading with community residents to limit their 911 emergency calls responsibly and for emergency purposes only as City EMS paramedics will check and determine if a patient has serious COVID-19 symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pains, or abnormal vital signs to be transported to the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, the sole hospital in the county.
Cardona added that unless a resident is experiencing these serious COVID-19 symptoms, they are recommended to stay at home and treat their symptoms like if it was the flu. Only if a resident’s symptoms worsen, then they are to call 911 for transport to the local hospital emergency room. “Don’t saturate and flood the 911 system,” said Cardona. However, “this does not apply to all other medical emergencies and accidents,” said Cardona. Due to the high volume of calls, “expect a wait time at the Emergency Room,” added Cardona. “Treat your COVID-19 symptoms at home,” said Cardona. Cardona’s exasperation is a reflection of the overwhelming of local health care services in the community due to the surging number of COVID-19 cases.
Of the 41 hospitalized patients at Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, Cardona noted that there are nine patients in the Intensive Care Unit with eight positive and one under investigation while seven of them are on ventilators, another 22 positive people and three under investigation are in the Medical Floor, and there are three positive people and four under investigation at the Emergency Room as of July 9, 2020.
Cardona stated that Emergency Operations Center representatives, including himself, had met with the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center to discuss the current state of affairs of the COVID-19 pandemic in Maverick County and the health care capacity of the hospital. Cardona added that the local medical center still had sufficient ventilators available to handle the current situation, including 17 one-time use ventilators and four new ventilators received from the State of Texas through State Representative Poncho Nevarez’s intervention.
Cardona highlighted that the Emergency Operations Center and the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center had developed a plan in the event the health care capacity at the hospital is overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, but offered no details whatsoever of the plan that was developed between the parties.
Maverick County residents have not been informed of the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County and local health care providers contingency plans in the event the sole hospital in the county is overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. Maverick Countians remain totally clueless on the local governmental entities’ contingency plans as of July 9, 2020.
Local residents have expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and disclosure of critical public health information to them, particularly the community’s contingency plan. They are entitled to be informed by their public officials. It is a matter of life and death.
