SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio fire station where six firefighters tested positive for COVID-19 will remain closed until the quarantine period is over for 41 personnel, SAFD Chief Charles Hood said Tuesday during a special City Council meeting.
Hood said that in addition to the six firefighters infected for the coronavirus, a few family members have also contracted the disease.
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Fire Station No. 14 has been cleaned professionally, and work is pending on air conditioning ducts and other station maintenance issues, Hood said.
Remaining personnel have been deployed to other fire stations, Hood said.
6th San Antonio firefighter tests positive for COVID-19, officials say
The fire chief also informed Mayor Ron Nirenberg and council members during the video conference that SAFD has made 568 COVID-19 contact calls from March 24 to April 20. During that time, 326 people were transported to hospitals for evaluation and treatment.
“The severity of some of these people we are taking now, they are very sick,” Hood said.
Hood said four nursing home patients have been taken to River City Care Center on Dignowity Hill, which is serving as a quarantine site.
“We don’t expect it to fill up,” Hood said of the 96-bed facility.
San Antonio has 840 COVID-19 quarantine rooms ready for occupancy
Hood also mentioned that a team of mobile paramedics assessed about 99 people who called with concerns about possibly contracting the virus but had no means of getting to a testing site.
Out of the 99 people assessed, 11 tests were collected, Hood said.
You can view Hood’s Power Point presentation below:
Chief Hood Presentation by David Ibanez on Scribd
Metro Health Director, Dr. Dawn Emerick, also presented a Power Point presentation to the city council.
Dawn Emerick Presentation by David Ibanez on Scribd
City Attorney, Andy Segovia, also presented a Power Point presentation to the city council.
Andy Segovia Presentation by David Ibanez on Scribd
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FROM KSAT: