First Week of August 2020 Adds 11 More COVID-19 Deaths and 420 Positive Cases in Maverick County, Bringing Total to 50 Deaths and 2,409 Cases
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
The first week of August 2020 started where July left off with being the deadliest month in Maverick County since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March with 11 new deaths and 420 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases reported during August 1-7 by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
On Monday, August 3, 2020, Maverick County reported five new deaths due to COVID-19 and 99 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases during the weekend of August 1-3.
On Tuesday, August 4, 2020, Maverick County reported two new deaths due to COVID-19 and 122 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases.
On Wednesday, August 5, 2020, Maverick County announced a slight improvement with no deaths due to COVID-19 but did report 111 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases.
On Thursday, August 6, 2020, Maverick County reported four new deaths due to COVID-19 but a smaller number of 39 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases.
On Friday, August 7, 2020, Maverick County reported a slight improvement of no new deaths and only 49 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the cumulative total to 50 deaths due to COVID-19 and 2,409 positive COVID-19 cases.
While the total of new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases increased by 420 during the first week of August 1-7, 2020, an average of 60 cases per day, the total number of new deaths increased by 11 during the same period, an average of 1.57 per day.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo noted the smaller number of new cases during the latter of the first week of August and expressed optimism that the numbers will stay in the 30-40s per day instead of the earlier numbers of 99-122 per day cases in the week. The new results during the second week of August 8-14 will be a better measure if Maverick County citizens have finally begun to bring the curve of infections down by following the CDC Guidelines recommended by local public officials for the past five months.
One local health care provider told this publication that the high infection rate of COVID-19 in Maverick County is due to many factors, but principally human social interaction, customs, and culture concerning the family as the nuclear social fabric that binds the Latinx community and the high incidence rate of diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, chronic cardiology health issues, and renal-kidney health issues predisposes more citizens at high risk of getting infected and dying from the COVID-19 virus.
The health care provider noted that the COVID-19 virus does not discriminate as to who it infects, but people with pre-existing medical conditions are more vulnerable to succumb to the deadly virus. The health care provider highlighted that Maverick County has a high percentage of residents among the poverty guidelines in the United States, highest rate of uninsured people, and the lack of access to affordable health care in the community. Maverick County is a historically underserved health care community in the United States.
