Bexar virus deaths jump to 201
‘We’re in the worst of times right now,’ Wolff says
Bexar County officials reported six more deaths from COVID-19 and 854 more confirmed cases Tuesday as the pandemic showed no signs of loosening its grip.
The new fatalities pushed the county’s death toll to 201, the fourth highest among Texas counties after Harris, Dallas and Tarrant.
A top medical adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott said the state’s coronavirus surge is serious enough that a return to stay-home orders should be considered, at least in the hardest-hit regions.
Dr. Mark McClellan said in an interview that Texas isn’t meeting key requirements for a safe reopening, including a sustained decline in new infections and adequate hospital capacity.
“It’s clear that the state has not been on a sustainable course, and it’s worth considering a regional approach,” said McClellan, a physician and economist at Duke University and a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. “It’s so hard to stay ahead of the pandemic when it’s in a growth phase.”
McClellan said Abbott’s current restrictions, including a statewide mask order and limits on large gatherings, would be enough to reverse the state’s trajectory if compliance was universal. But several counties have refused to enforce the mandates, citing the need to protect personal liberty.
“These approaches do work, but it does take everyone being in it together,” McClellan said.
In San Antonio, hospitals remained under severe stress, city and county officials said at their daily coronavirus briefing.
“We’re in the worst of times right now,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “I believe these next two weeks are going to be absolutely critical if we’re going to contain this ... Without your support, we are not going to get out of this.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said 36 percent of patients being admitted to local hospitals are seeking treatment for COVID-19.
The mayor added that nearly 30 percent of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have no known underlying medical conditions. “So people who are healthy are also very susceptible to catching this illness, and it is becoming severe,” he said.
Some 1,237 COVID-19 patients were in San Antonio hospitals as of Tuesday, 30 fewer than the day before.
Of those, 417 were in intensive care, a decline of four during the previous 24 hours, and 260 were on ventilators, three more than the day before.
That left 11 percent of staffed patient beds available in the city’s civilian hospitals, up from 10 percent on Monday.
Since the virus arrived here in March, 21,067 Bexar County residents have tested positive. So far, more than a third — nearly 7,900 — have recovered, while nearly 13,000 are listed as still sick by the Metropolitan Health District.
Nirenberg said the six latest victims were a white woman in her 50s who died at home; a white man in his 60s who died at Methodist Hospital; a Hispanic man in his 60s who died at home; an Asian man in his 60s who died at home; a white man in his 70s who died at University Health System; and a white woman in her 80s who died at Methodist Stone Oak Hospital.
The virus also continued to lash Texas as a whole, with 87 more deaths and a record 10,745 new cases reported Tuesday. That’s up from the previous record of 10,351 new cases in a single day reported on July 11.
The number of deaths did not come close to the state’s record high of 105 deaths in a 24-hour period reported on July 9.
The coronavirus is pushing Texas hospitals to the limit. A total of 10,569 people who tested positive for the virus remained hospitalized in Texas on Tuesday, the highest number reported since the pandemic began. Only 949 intensive care unit beds were available statewide, while 5,051 ventilators remained unused.
Since the state’s first cases were confirmed March 6, more than 275,000 Texans have tested positive. An estimated 142,398 Texans have recovered, while 129,338 still have what the state considers “active cases.”
The state’s death toll stands at 3,322.