NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Everyone from the Nueces County Judge to our Health Director are encouraged that our COVID-19 numbers have been lower than predicted.
It was feared that we might be seeing anywhere from 600 to 1,000 people a day testing positive for COVID-19 right now. Instead, those numbers are hovering somewhere around the 150 mark each day.
Our local COVID Task Force has updated its projections for the spread of the virus. Sometime in mid-January 2021, we should be approaching 250 cases daily.
It was feared that by December 27, we could’ve been seeing anywhere from 600 to 1,000 new cases a day. That did not happen. Instead, our numbers have been much lower.
"They are kind of wobbling up and down, but most concerning to us right now is the hospitalizations," Health Director Annette Rodriguez said.
"We have been kind of at 140-145 maybe 149. Today, I noticed the number has jumped up to 170. And I just can’t even imagine how the hospital staff is handling 150 to 170 COVID patients.”
With more people turning up with COVID in our hospitals, our hospitalization rate is up. Rodriguez said it’s getting closer to that 15-percent mark, which would call for health measures, such as rolling back the capacity our businesses could hold from 75-percent to 50-percent.
”I do know that the positivity rate for the hospitalizations, we’ve been keeping an eye on that, that’s also creeping up about 12 or 13-percent," Rodriguez said.
"We all know that if it gets to 15-percent and it stays there for seven days in a row, the governor has very clearly said that somethings will have to change. You may have to roll back.”
Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales pointed to the fact that the virus is still potentially deadly to all people who might catch it.
"The 100 to 200 level is where we have been for over, gosh, six weeks and the deaths going from zero to five, that’s our peak as well, but I know it hurt me tremendously to see over the Christmas break that we lost two people in their 20s," Canales said.
"While it’s still very true that we lose a lot of elderly people and a lot of people with comorbidities, make no mistake this virus does not discriminate.”
Canales said that she is encouraged though by how fast vaccines are being given.
Right now, first responders are getting vaccinated and eventually there will be a way for the public to sign up to get on a vaccination list.
Firefighters in Corpus Christi receive Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
There’s no timetable for that to happen, but she believes it’s going to happen much sooner than anyone expected.
RELATED: A new COVID-19 color-coded risk chart is just about ready to be rolled out, County Judge says
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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