Emergency declaration extended as cases jump
Order could help the city receive federal reimbursements
The San Antonio City Council indefinitely extended the city’s public health emergency declaration Thursday as Bexar County sees spikes in the number of new coronavirus cases — but doing so is now mostly a formality.
City and county officials no longer set the tempo of when businesses and activities resume amid the pandemic — an authority absorbed by Gov. Greg Abbott. They also can’t compel residents to stay at home in any fashion.
But San Antonio needs some kind of order in place to get federal reimbursement for costs stemming from the pandemic, officials said Thursday.
Those federal funds could pay for emergency responders and Metropolitan Health District employees dealing with COVID-19 and for personal protective equipment and COVID-19 tests purchased by the city.
So far, the city has racked up about $190 million in those kinds of costs.
The latest city order points to Abbott’s order for specifics on how and when businesses can reopen and other activities can begin to take place.
A separate directive issued by Metro Health lays out health recommendations such as wearing face coverings and keeping the requisite 6 feet of social distance. It also reminds officials of private labs conducting COVID-19 tests that their results must be reported to Metro Health.
The thinking on the health directive was that “if perhaps some of these recommendations about how to be safe came from a health professional, it might be a little less polarizing than it coming from a political body,” Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger told council members Thursday.
In the last two days, Bexar County has seen a spike
in the number of new cases — 180 on Tuesday and 135 on Wednesday.
There also has been an increase in the number of people with novel coronavirus who are sick enough to be in the hospital. As of Thursday afternoon, 108 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 50 in intensive care and 28 on ventilators to help them breathe.
Some of those new cases stem from “lumps” of delayed test results from private labs, Bridger said. But the majority are likely the result of increased spread in the community resulting from Abbott’s loosened restrictions Memorial Day weekend and from people “being tired of doing all of the things that we’ve been doing over the last three months,” Bridger said.
“People are less safe in their behaviors,” she said.
District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran encouraged protesters demonstrating in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis to wear masks and practice social distancing.
“We need to continue to maintain all of the practices we’ve been doing,” Viagran said, echoing the words of health professionals as well as other city and county leaders.