Three More Maverick County Citizens Die from COVID-19 and 18 New Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Cases Announced on July 22, 2020, Bringing Total to 23 Deaths and 1,390 Cases
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
The silent and invisible novel coronavirus struck again in Maverick County, Texas claiming the lives of three additional citizens on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 and infecting another 18 citizens with the COVID-19 virus, bringing the total to 23 deaths associated with COVID-19 and 1,390 positive cases.
Rodolfo “Woody” Cardona, Eagle Pass Assistant Fire Chief and Co-Director of the Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), announced at a July 22, 2020 press conference that a total of 9,666 people in Maverick County have had a COVID-19 test administered with 1,390 positive results, 7,497 negative results, 779 waiting for results, 665 recovered, 702 active cases, 56 hospitalized, 23 deaths, and the positivity rate increased to 15.6 percent.
Cardona noted that the number of hospitalized patients at Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center increased from 40 to 56 patients with 20 patients in the Intensive Care Unit as 16 are positive and four awaiting test results, another 28 patients in the Medical Floor with 18 positive and 10 awaiting test results, and eight in the Emergency Room with seven positive and one awaiting test results. Cardona added that there are 15 patients on ventilators at Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center as of July 22.
Cardona highlighted that due to the increased workload upon the EOC contact tracers and investigators as a result of the surge of positive COVID-19 cases, the EOC will change its reporting of the number of COVID-19 cases by cutting-off the daily count at 3 P.M. instead of 5 P.M.
Cardona noted that any positive COVID-19 cases reported after 3 P.M. will be counted in the following day’s daily report. He added that the EOC staff is working to capacity and doing a great job.
Leopoldo “Polo” Vielma, Maverick County District Clerk and Co-Director of the Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center, stated “they are hard numbers to listen to. I cannot express enough the importance of wearing face masks. We need to take this thing seriously. We had 23 fatalities in the community. This is getting close to home….This is coming from social gatherings. You need to keep your circle of family and gatherings to your residence….” Vielma urged all Maverick County residents to wear a face mask, wash their hands regularly, use hand sanitizer, social distancing (6 feet), limit travel to essential matters only, and stay home.
