Virus cases top 1,000 again
Official: Positives a fraction of real total
For the 14th day in a row, San Antonio health officials reported more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19, a sign of the continuing rampant spread of the virus throughout the community.
The 1,829 cases added Thursday tipped Bexar County’s total since the pandemic began to 140,614. Half those cases — about 70,000 — have been reported within the last two months.
Yet the number of cases confirmed by positive test results represents a fraction of the number of people currently infected across the county. Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger, San Antonio’s coronavirus czar, said Thursday that health officials estimate that there are nearly 18,000 active infections this week alone.
“You need to assume everyone around you has the virus and act accordingly,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, urging residents to avoid crowded situations.
As the spread of infections has surged across San Antonio, so too has the number of residents dying of the disease.
Nirenberg said Thursday that COVID-19 killed 19 more people, whose deaths occurred within the last two weeks. All were over age 70, with the exception of one man in his 50s who died at home. The vast majority were residents of assisted
living facilities homes.
Bridger said health officials haven’t identified outbreaks in specific nursing homes and assisted living facilities — instead, cases and deaths have risen in general, mirroring the community as a whole.
But residents and the medical providers who care for them could soon see relief.
The federal government contracted with private pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate longterm care facility residents and staff members. Bridger said the process to administer both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is almost complete.
“They are finishing up the second doses over the next week to 10 days,” Bridger said. “So that should help.”
Thursday’s double-digit death count came a day after the city reported 25 new deaths — a near record. Since the pandemic began, only one other day has been more deadly: Aug. 12, when the record of 26 was set. The county’s total death toll stands at 1,704.
COVID-19 patients also continued to flood area hospitals, with 158 people admitted since Wednesday.
On Thursday, hospitals were caring for 1,407 COVID-19 patients, a slight dip from 1,411 the day before. Of those, 382 people were critically ill and needed intensive care, down slightly from 393 on Wednesday. The number of patients needing ventilators to breathe also inched down, to 231 from 237.
The mayor cautioned San Antonians against letting their guard down because of the plateau of cases in the last few days.
“(Hospitals are) at high stress right now, and the numbers have not shown much mercy,” Nirenberg said. “While we’ve had a few days that have leveled off a little bit, that’s certainly not a trend.” or marina.riker @express-news.net nursing