Two More Maverick County Citizens Succumb to COVID-19 and 122 New Confirmed Positive Cases Reported on August 4, 2020, Bringing Total to 46 Deaths and 2,210 Cases
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
Without a national plan to combat the deadly COVID-19 virus in the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to infect tens of thousands of Americans daily with no end in sight as the school year commences in most communities while parents, teachers, superintendents, school boards, and public health experts grapple with the difficult decision whether to send children to in-person or online instruction.
Maverick County is no exception to this public health dilemma facing Americans as the highly infectious COVID-19 continues to batter local citizens through community spread transmission at its highest ever infection rate of 20 percent, continuous fatalities, and confirmed positive cases.
Eagle Pass Mayor Luis E. Sifuentes announced at a press conference held on Tuesday, August 5, 2020, that regrettably two more Maverick County citizens had succumbed to the lethal coronavirus and another 122 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases were reported in Maverick County by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Sifuentes stated that the cumulative totals in Maverick County as of August 5, 2020 now include 11,565 people administered the COVID-19 test with 2,210 positive results, 8,840 negative results, 515 pending results, 1,015 active cases, 1,195 recovered people, 46 deaths, 53 hospitalized patients, and the positivity rate increased to 20 percent, its highest rate to date.
Sifuentes noted that there are 53 hospitalized patients at the lone hospital in Maverick County, Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center, with 15 positive patients in the Intensive Care Unit, 38 patients in the Medical Floor with 37 positive and one pending results, and 13 patients in the Emergency Room with five positive and eight pending results. Sifuentes added that the number of hospitalized patients had decreased from 64 the previous day.
Sifuentes stated that San Antonio hospitals are now accepting transfer COVID-19 patients from Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center as seven to eight patients have been or will be transferred. Local hospitalized patients in critical condition are being transferred to San Antonio hospitals to provide them with advanced medical care and to relieve the capacity at the only hospital in Maverick County, which has been overwhelmed for about a month now.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo acknowledged that Maverick County has had “overwhelming numbers” of COVID-19 positive cases that the local Emergency Operations Center is changing its contact tracing procedures to catch up with the huge number of infected persons in the county. Saucedo noted that the Emergency Operations Center contact tracers will now only contact positive COVID-19 patients in Maverick County when they initially test positive and about two days before completing their quarantine period to see if they still have COVID symptoms. This change is necessary to catch up with the backlog of patients needed to be contacted by the EOC’s contact tracers.
Without a doubt, the community spread of COVID-19 in Maverick County is widespread and uncontrollable due to many factors, but principally due to social habits of human beings and the lack of a national strategic plan to combat the deadly virus.
Texas reported 9,167 new positive COVID-19 cases and 245 deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, bringing the cumulative total to 451,181 positive cases, 7,261 deaths, and 8,674 hospitalized patients.
Nationally, the United States reported 53,440 new confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and 1,358 deaths on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, bringing the cumulative total to 4,778,800 cases and 157,300 deaths.
As public and private schools commence opening for the 2020-2021 school year, it is unconscionable to ask Americans to send their children to in-person instruction without a national plan against COVID-19 and the infection rate of COVID-19 cases continue to surge uncontrollably with no end in sight for the foreseeable future.
