SAN ANTONIO – Editor’s Note: Watch the entire briefing in the video player above. Newsletter recipients can click here to access the video.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff updated the community about the local response to COVID-19 in their daily briefing Saturday night. See the full video in the player above.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Nirenberg reported 1,887 COVID-19 cases and 56 deaths in Bexar County, as of Saturday. Seven new cases were confirmed at the Bexar County Jail, where 303 inmates and 55 staff has tested positive so far. Twenty two new cases were reported in the community.
- City officials also said that 62 patients are hospitalized, 35 are in the intensive care unit and 21 are on ventilators. Nine hundred seventy patients have recovered so far.
- Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, of Precinct 2, said the city and the county has received funds from the CARES Act. Officials are working on deploying resources as soon as possible into the community, which will go toward workforce training, job readiness, giving funds to small businesses, etc. The funds will need to be used by the end of the year.
- For elections, Rodriguez said $2.5 million have been allocated to make sure sites are ready for residents to vote in-person come election season. City officials will also make a decision in the next week or two on mail-in ballots.
- Rodriguez said only 3% of 970 recovered COVID patients have donated plasma so far in San Antonio. He is urging anyone that has recovered from the virus to donate plasma to the blood and tissue center, as it could help others in their recoveries as well.
- Nirenberg said although Mother’s Day is happening tomorrow (Sunday), it’s important for residents to celebrate from afar. He is reminding residents to continue practicing social distancing to keep everyone safe and to not celebrate in groups.
- If businesses are violating executive orders by the city and the state, they will receive citations, Nirenberg said. Ultimately, if customers aren’t protected and the city starts to see more infection rates go up, hospitalizations increase, Nirenberg said the city will have to start closing businesses again and will need to implement more distancing rules.
- At Saturday’s walk-up testing sites, a total of 150 residents at each site were tested on Saturday, according to Jennifer Herriott, of Metro Health. She said they could’ve tested more had there been more kits available. So far, health officials are seeing a “tremendous” response to these testing sites.
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.
Read Bexar County’s updated executive order below. Newsletter recipients: Click here to read the order.
Read San Antonio’s updated executive order below. Newsletter recipients: Click here to read the order.
MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FROM KSAT: