S.A. sees second-highest day of death
Officials point to holidays, nursing homes for worst COVID exposure sources
San Antonio recorded a staggering death toll Wednesday of 25 residents killed by COVID-19, the second highest number recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.
The record remains 26 San Antonians reported dead on Aug. 12.
The sharp daily increase has pushed the death toll here to 1,685. It follows an unprecedented surge in new cases that hit a record of 3,002 on Sunday.
Although the city’s Metropolitan Health District has not yet analyzed the data, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff both attributed the latest surge in deaths to residents letting down their guard over the long holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve.
“I think intuitively we know that there has been a lot more activity over the holidays,” Nirenberg said, “a lot more interaction among people, family and friends.”
Fourteen of the victims reported on Wednesday were residents of long-term care facilities, where the state began prioritizing vaccinations last month. An effort by CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to vaccinate residents and staff of nursing homes in Texas remains ongoing.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of cases again in nursing homes,” said Rita Espinoza, Metro Health’s
chief of epidemiology.
Altogether, more than 300 residents of nursing homes and assisted-living centers in San Antonio have died from COVID-19.
The dead reported Wednesday included a white female in her 80s; two Hispanic males in their 80s; a Hispanic female in her 90s; an Asian male in his 60s; two white males in their 80s; two Hispanic males in their 40s; and a Hispanic female in her 60s.
Also, four victims were white females in their 80s; a Hispanic male in his 50s; two Hispanic males in their 70s; a white male in his 90s; a
Hispanic female in her 70s; two Hispanic females in their 80s; a white male in his 80s; a Black female in her 70s; a white male in his 70s; and a white female in her 90s.
The surge in deaths here mirrors a grim toll across the country, where a record number of Americans — more than 4,400 — were reported killed by COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Bexar County likely has not yet seen the worst of the current spike in deaths, Espinoza said.
“We expect to continue to see this increase in deaths,” she said. “We’re close to being there, but we still have a few days, especially with (residents infected on) New Year’s Eve.”
At the same time, new cases and hospitalizations in Bexar County continued to fall on Wednesday, albeit from great heights.
There were 1,378 new cases, down nearly 1,000 from the previous day’s tally of 2,303. The number of people hospitalized with the virus dipped slightly to 1,411 from 1,426 Tuesday, and those in intensive care also fell — from 403 to 393.
Bexar County hospitals admitted 168 new COVID-19 patients, up from 165 Tuesday. Coronavirus patients account for 35 percent of all hospital patients in the county.
“This is still a harrowing pandemic in our community, and we still have quite a ways to go,” Nirenberg said. “We are working together, and that’s how we’ll save lives. Please do it for yourself, do it for your family and do it for San Antonio.”