Four More Maverick County Citizens Fall to COVID-19 and 52 New Confirmed Positive Cases Reported on August 10, 2020, Bringing Total to 54 Deaths and 2,461 Cases
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
With 21 days remaining before the Eagle Pass Independent School District opens for the 2020-2021 school year on August 31, 2020, Maverick County continues to struggle with slowing the community spread of COVID-19 as four more deaths and 52 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, August 10, 2020.
Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes stated that a total of 12,395 people in Maverick County have been tested for COVID-19 with 2,461 positive results, 9,490 negative results, 444 pending test results, 1,570 recovered cases, 837 active cases, 51 hospitalized patients, 54 deaths, and the positivity rate remains high at 20.5 percent.
Sifuentes noted that of the 51 hospitalized patients at Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, there are nine (9) in the Intensive Care Unit with seven positive and two pending results, another 30 in the Medical Floor with 23 positive and seven pending results, another 12 in the Emergency Room with four positive and eight pending results, and there are eight patients on ventilators.
The four deceased citizens included a 57 year old male, a 68 year old male, a 85 year old male, and a 67 year old female. Sifuentes expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the four fallen citizens.
Sifuentes added that Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center reports new COVID-19 patients are not in severe or critical condition as earlier patients were several weeks ago, but nonetheless COVID-19 is highly infectious and deadly and people should not let their guard down.
Sifuentes stated that the U.S. Military Quick Response Team assisting Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center had completed their assignment and had departed the hospital and community. He added that a meeting with the San Antonio Quick Response Team, composed of firefighters and paramedics, was held on August 10 and that they were going to assist testing local nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, adult day care centers, and senior nutrition centers in the community.
COVID-19 infections have exploded in the three nursing home facilities and rehabilitation centers in Maverick County with a cumulative total of 40 employees testing positive, 122 residents testing positive, and three deaths of residents from COVID-19, according to State of Texas statistics as of July 27, 2020. To learn more about the explosion of COVID-19 infections in the three nursing home facilities and rehabilitation centers in Maverick County, please go to the Eagle Pass Business Journal website or Face Book Page to read the latest article on this subject matter.
Sifuentes highlighted that the majority of COVID-19 infections in Maverick County have come from gatherings among family and friends, lack of wearing face masks, and lack of social distancing, according to the Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Investigators and Contact Tracers. Sifuentes recommended not to bring people into one’s home outside their immediate family. Limit your home to only your household family.
Also pending to be tested in Maverick County are all of the inmates at the Tom Bowles Detention Center as at least one inmate has already tested positive for COVID-19 on July 31, 2020. Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber has requested the Emergency Operations Center to seek the Texas National Guard Medical Team to come to Eagle Pass to test all of the inmates at the Maverick County Jail, which houses city, county, state, and federal inmates. A majority of the inmates are federal pre-trial detainees awaiting trial or final disposition of their criminal cases in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division, in Del Rio, Texas. At least three jailers and three Deputy Sheriffs within the Maverick County Sheriff’s Department have previously tested positive for COVID-19 and have recovered.
Remaining to be heard from is the Eagle Pass Independent School District’s policy on COVID-19 and testing protocol as there are only 21 days before the new school year opens on August 31, 2020. According to the Eagle Pass Independent School District website, there are over 14,300 students, 868 teachers, 1,932 staff employees, and 24 school campuses. Parents, teachers, staff, and students are expressing concerns regarding the start of the new school year on August 31.
A review of the Maverick County COVID-19 data shows that the number of tests has decreased for several factors but principally the shortage of test supplies, costs associated with the test, reduced hours of testing sites, lack of testing sites during the weekends, and minimization of the importance of getting tested.
Unlike Maverick County, many communities such as Laredo, San Antonio, McAllen, and El Paso have free COVID-19 testing, multiple testing sites, weekend testing sites, and public relations campaigns to get everyone within the community tested. Maverick County got overwhelmed with the large number of positive COVID-19 cases, hospitalized patients, fatalities, keeping up with the contact tracing, reacting to the COVID-19 crisis, and not having a written contingency plan. But it is not too late. The third wave of infections is coming.
Maverick County should double up its preventative measures as public health experts and health care providers are predicting a larger infection rate in the fall once the influenza season begins with both COVID-19 and influenza infections happening simultaneously, often making it difficult to distinguish between the two viruses. Both viruses are highly infectious and deadly.
Maverick County has done a good job during the first wave of COVID-19 and should use the experience learned to prepare for the third wave of infections and for future virus pandemics.
