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 Friday night.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Nirenberg reported 2,636 COVID-19 cases and 72 deaths in Bexar County, as of Friday. Thirty-two cases are from the community, and two are from congregate settings.
- City officials also reported that 91 patients are hospitalized, 40 are in the intensive care unit and 25 are on ventilators.
- Dr. Junda Woo, assistant director of the Metropolitan Health District, said the LovinglyHome assisted living facility in Leon Valley was shut down and given five days to find new homes for their residents on Thursday. She said Metro Health saw accumulating positive case numbers, and residents and staff members were tested. There were five positive cases out of seven people tested, including the death of one resident, Woo said.
- Woo said the state and Metro Health started looking into LovinglyHome about nine days ago. She said while nursing homes were ordered to get universal testing, assisted living facilities and other congregate settings won’t get that until after all the nursing homes have been tested and if those facilities haven’t had testing in 30 days. She also said Metro Health can go into these facilities to test earlier than scheduled if there are positives.
- Nirenberg said the city has now done 100% universal testing at 62 of the 67 nursing homes in the area. He said some nursing homes are performing their own serial testing. Woo said for now, Metro Health is only testing the facilities once.
- There was a slight decrease in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the area, city leaders said. Officials will continue to monitor progress and warning indicators.
- Nirenberg said a slug of test results will be coming down from state labs soon, so people may see a bigger increase in cases in the coming days. However, he said these are cases from a backlog, and some of these tests may be weeks old. Woo said there was a bigger backlog than usual because of increased testing.
- Nirenberg also said more than 60,000 COVID-19 tests have been administered in Bexar County as of yet.
- Wolff said the county will be administering plexiglass to small businesses on Monday. Click here to learn more about the signup process.
Coronavirus data: San Antonio cases stabilizing, but officials urge vigilance to avoid second wave
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