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Health leaders prepare area nursing homes from the threat of the new Omicron variant

Due to the unpredictability of the new variant, Health Director Annette Rodriguez said that safety is a top priority when equipping residents and staff.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County health officials provided insight Wednesday to nursing home representatives regarding the Omicron variant and what the Coastal Bend needs to do to prepare for it.

City-County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez held a virtual meeting with representatives of local long-term health facilities, one of those facilities being Brookdale Trinity Towers. Rodriguez said she wanted to make sure the nursing homes had everything they needed to stay ahead of the new variant. 

"We've done everything in our power to help these nursing homes," Rodriguez said. "Because we saw early on, you know, what happened in Washington State." 

Due to the unpredictability of the new variant, Rodriguez said that safety is a top priority when equipping residents and staff.

"We just wanted to make sure they knew the vaccination status, what the vaccination status was for their associates," Rodriguez said. "For all the workers and all the residents. And then also to make sure that they brushed up on their visitation policies."

Rodriguez also added that her office sent off nine COVID-19 samples to the State Department of Health Services in Austin. The State is doing the genomic sequencing for the health district.

"We've gotten back six that have been sequenced and they all came back as Delta," Rodriguez said. 

The remaining samples were sent to the CDC in Atlanta, with some wondering why? 

"I'm not sure why," Rodriguez said. "I asked, 'Why would they send them to the CDC? Is it something suspicious? Why would they send it?' They said I don't know. Maybe they have so many. Maybe some of them over a certain amount are sent to CDC."

Rodriguez said she also spoke with her staff to be prepared for another mass vaccination effort if researchers discover that the current vaccines won't protect against Omicron.

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