Number of S.A. cases climbs past 1,000
Masks are required on everyone out in public ages 10 and older, starting today
number of COVID-19 cases in San Antonio climbed past 1,000 and another resident of the Southeast Side nursing home that saw an outbreak of the disease has died, officials said Sunday.
San Antonio now has 1,015 confirmed cases of COVID-19, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at the daily city-county briefing.
Nirenberg and County Judge Nelson Wolff reminded area residents that everyone 10 and older will be required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth when out in public starting today, with few exceptions.
That covering can be a mask or some kind of cloth as long as it covers the nose and mouth. The rule primarily applies in situations where residents aren’t able to stay 6 feet away from each other.
Residents who “egregiously” violate the requirement will be cited but whether every violator will get fined will be assessed on a case-bycase basis, City Attorney Andy Segovia said.
“We’re not out to fine people,” Segovia said. “We’re not out to inThe crease the fear level at all. But, at the same time, we want people to take the order seriously.”
It has been more than a month since officials announced March 13 that the virus was present in the community, not just among evacuees brought to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. That’s also when city and county officials began to place limits on gatherings in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease.
To Nirenberg and County Judge
Nelson Wolff, those steps have worked.
“We didn’t enjoy having to take these actions early or at all,” Nirenberg said. “But they are saving lives. That’s pretty clear.”
Still, a lack of proper testing protocol at the federal level caught the city and county off-guard early on, Wolff said.
“We were totally unprepared for what was coming at us,” Wolff said.
The person whose death was reported Sunday was a Hispanic man in his 70s who had multiple underlying health conditions, Nirenberg said. He was a resident of Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Eighteen residents of that facility who tested positive for novel coronavirus have died.
The death total for Bexar County stood at 39 on Sunday.
There was some good news in the figures released Sunday. Wolff pointed out that the number of people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 has been growing significantly, up by 100 since Friday to 296 Sunday.
Most people with the disease who are showing symptoms are in self-isolation at home.
As of Sunday, 81 are in the hospital — 41 of whom are in intensive care. Of those, 24 are on ventilators to help them breathe.
“We know you're anxious, you’re frustrated and it’s a stressful time being at home,” Nirenberg said. “But I do want to let you know and just encourage you: What you’re doing is saving lives. We are keeping people healthy. And the social distancing that we’ve been practicing together is working.”
Officials encouraged those who are showing symptoms to seek testing, citing expanded testing capacity. Nearly 13,000 tests for COVID-19 have been administered in Bexar County.
“We do have tests available,” said Jennifer Herriott, Metro Health’s assistant director of community health. “I know that was a challenge early on. That’s no longer a challenge.”
As the city and county leaders talked about the new restrictions taking effect today, questions were asked about possible penalities for violations. The order calls for a fine of up to $1,000 and/ or six months in jail.
But Nirenberg and Wolff said the goal is for residents to follow the requirements for the safety of their families and their neighbors, not because they’re going to be punished if they don’t follow the new restrictions.
Residents who “egregiously” violate the requirement will be cited but whether every violator will get fined will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, City Attorney Andy Segovia said.
“We’re not out to fine people,” Segovia said. “We’re not out to increase the fear level at all. But, at the same time, we want people to take the order seriously.”
Many convenience and grocery stores, such as HE-B, already are alerting customers about the new facecovering requirement. They will require all customers to wear face coverings to get into their stores.
Nirenberg and Wolff also set a limit on the number of customers that can be inside a store at one time: no more than 25 percent of the maximum occupancy limit set by the fire marshal. For example, if the occupancy limit is 100, the maximum that can be in the store will be 25.
In Guadalupe County, officials confirmed one more case of COVID-19, bringing the total case count there to 58.
So far, 33 patients in Guadalupe County have recovered and one person has been hospitalized outside of the county. No resident of that county has died.