Bolivar Peninsula sees puzzling case rise
A recent uptick in COVID-19 cases on sparsely populated Bolivar Peninsula has local officials and residents scratching their heads.
On Jan. 18, Bolivar Peninsula had 17 active cases before spiking to 57 cases on Jan. 28, according to the Galveston County Health District. The seven-day positivity rate during that period increased from 1.7 percent to 5.4 percent, one of the only cities in Galveston County where the positivity rate hasn’t steadily declined over the past several weeks. As of Feb. 2, Bolivar’s seven-day positivity rate had leveled off to 3.7 percent, which is still well above the peninsula’s average rate since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It’s a little behind what we’ve been seeing everywhere else,” said Philip Keiser, the local health authority for Galveston County. “We have pockets in the county where we have not only numbers ticking up, but (COVID-19 case totals) taking up a disproportionate amount of their population as well.”
Bolivar Peninsula, an unincorporated part of Galveston County, is primarily a vacation second-home destination for many in the Houston-Galveston region. Roughly 2,000 people live there permanently, according to U.S. census data, and the peninsula can only be reached from the west by ferry from Galveston or from the east via Texas 124 in
Winnie.
The peninsula’s relative isolation compared to other unincorporated parts of the county makes it difficult to pinpoint an exact cause of the recent uptick, Keiser said. While there has been significant concern regionally and nationally about new COVID-19 variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil driving new surges in cases and hospitalizations across the country, Keiser dismissed that as a possible explanation for a hyper-local increase on Bolivar Peninsula.
Keiser said the Galveston National Laboratory recently tested hundreds of samples of COVID-19 cases throughout Galveston and Brazoria counties to look for the Brazilian and South African variants and identified only three cases.
“One (variant case) was from Galveston County and it wasn’t on Bolivar,” he said.
Darrell Apffel, a Galveston County commissioner whose district includes Bolivar Peninsula, was also flummoxed by the small surge of cases there. He noted there haven’t been any large events that would have precipitated an increase in virus cases. In May, video clips of people
partying on the peninsula during “Go Topless Jeep Weekend” went viral as people were visibly not social distancing or wearing masks.
“Everybody’s practicing social distancing that I’m aware of, everybody’s using COVID-19 protocols, so I just don’t have an answer for it,” Apffel said.
Anecdotally, Bolivar residents paint a somewhat different picture. Claudia Perkins, who owns a home on the peninsula, said she saw a photo recently on social media of a weekend event on the peninsula — a “large crowd at a party and not one mask.” She said that while she and most of her friends are staying indoors, she’s not sure if mask wearing is being stressed at local establishments.
“I think until it hits home, people don’t realize that it can literally kill you,” Perkins said. “And that applies to all ages and physical shapes.”
Winnie Burkett, who lives in Port Bolivar, said she avoids shopping at the local market — The Big Store in Crystal Beach — unless there are few cars in the parking lot.
“My guess is that cases here are going up because people are not careful, many don’t wear masks or social distance,” Burkett said. “We mostly shop and eat out in Galveston because of that.”
One solution for Bolivar Peninsula will be getting the COVID-19 vaccine to more people there. Galveston County as a whole has been successful in getting its vaccine dosages out to people who are eligible. Roughly 1 in 20 Galveston County residents over the age of 16 have been fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Statewide, 3.1 percent of Texans have been fully vaccinated, figures show.
The Galveston County Health District also has a mobile truck it is using to vaccinate people in low-income parts of the county, such as Hitchcock and San Leon. The truck has the ability to vaccinate 500 people per day.
“(The vaccine) needs to go to places that don’t have good transportation,” Apfeel said. “Places like Bolivar where there’s kind of a disconnect.”