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 Monday night.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Nirenberg reported 2,213 COVID-19 cases and 63 deaths in Bexar County, as of Monday. The data reporting team took the weekend off, so there were no new numbers reported on Saturday and Sunday. The mayor said there were 72 new positive cases on Friday, 16 on Saturday and five on Sunday.
- Twenty-three cases are from the community, 37 are from the Bexar County Jail and five are from nursing homes. City officials also reported that 77 patients are hospitalized, 36 are in the intensive care unit and 18 are on ventilators.
- Nirenberg said the city now has the capacity to conduct 3,000 tests per day, a goal that is a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.
- Dr. Colleen Bridger, assistant city manager, said the city was able to increase testing after expanding a contract with a lab to go from 400 tests per day to 1,000. She said private labs were able to expand capacity, as well, helping the city reach its goal capacity of 3,000 tests per day.
- Bridger said the city is working to increase testing in high-risk areas, such as congregate settings, and also increase testing for asymptomatic individuals.
- Bridger said two of the city’s four progress indicators have been met, and the others are heading in the right direction. Nirenberg said if the city meets its warning indicator threshold, it will need to work with local partners and the state to make sure there isn’t an increase in positive COVID-19 cases again.
- Wolff said the Bexar County area continues to do better in terms of infection rate than anywhere else in the state. He said the public will be able to handle the reopening of businesses because of the strides we are making. Click here to read more about which types of business Gov. Greg Abbott has allowed to reopen.
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