Bexar reports six more COVID deaths

Six more people in San Antonio and Bexar County have died of the novel coronavirus, the most in nearly two weeks, officials said Tuesday.

The local death toll from COVID-19 now stands at 1,068, according to the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. Tuesday’s deaths were the most since Sept. 10, when nine were reported.

The six deaths reported Tuesday occurred within the last two weeks, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said during the daily city-county coronavirus briefing. All six were women in their 30s, 40s, 60s and 70s. One was Hispanic.

“Remember: each of these folks and all of those that we’ve reported in days past are loved ones, friends, neighbors, colleagues, people who are missed,” Nirenberg said.

Health officials have closely watched the number of new cases and deaths in the event of a spike from the long Labor Day weekend. The summer surge in cases — when daily numbers often exceeded 1,000 — began after Memorial Day and the reopening of businesses.

A steady decline in August and early September allowed Metro Health to lower the risk level to safe. The risk of infection was considered severe earlier in the summer.

New cases were up Tuesday after two days of falling numbers — 196, an increase from the 102 reported Monday and 108 on Sunday.

Bexar County has now had 53,639 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began in early March.

Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger, also the interim Metro Health director, said the recent uptick in cases is “probably” tied to the Labor Day weekend.

Officials are monitoring the trends as schools reopen and Gov. Greg Abbott loosens restrictions on businesses, including restaurants. Metro Health’s school risk level indicator was “moderate” Tuesday, unchanged over the last couple weeks.

the pace and scale of campus reopenings. With significant numbers of students still learning at home, connectivity remains a major stumbling block.

About 81 percent of the city has broadband internet, according to the Digital Inclusion Survey and Assessment, with gaps in access occurring largely within Council Districts 1 through 5. District 5 had the lowest proportion, with access at 62 percent.

The project is working to increase it in 24 neighborhoods in the San Antonio Independent School District, as well as eight in Edgewod ISD, two in Harlandale ISD, three in South San Antonio ISD, four in Southwest ISD, one in Judson ISD, three in North East ISD and five in Northside ISD.

“The City of San Antonio is not becoming an internet service provider,” but it is building a fiber and wireless infrastructure to provide a private network throughout those neighborhoods, Dillard told the council's Innovation and Technology Committee.

The Office of Innovation will start installing routers and antennas this month until December in six neighborhoods, a 16square-mile area, on the West Side near Lanier High School to test the program. Installation for the remaining neighborhoods will take place from January to September 2021.

“We're not just providing for kids to be able to do fun stuff at home with their computers, right? Or to play with iPads and tablets,” District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez said.

“We're, in essence, bringing an essential service to kids who have no access to this,” he said. “And without the access to that, well, they fall further and further and further into the cracks, making it much more difficult for all of us to pull them out.”

Students will log in through their district's network and go through its firewall as if they were using a campus computer.

Though installation and operating costs for the program are covered for a year, a funding source has not been secured for the future. Some funds could come from the city budget to keep internet connectivity going in these homes, Dillard said, but “definitely not all of it.”

“That's a collective effort,” he said, hoping to speak with school districts, public agencies and state and federal entities once the pilot program is complete.

Families wishing to get internet service who may not have the means should contact their school district to be considered for the program, Dillard said.