Name: ‘Tsunami’ of COVID cases crushing Hidalgo County
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‘Tsunami’ of COVID cases crushing Hidalgo County

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateHidalgo County is awash in a tidal wave of COVID-19 cases that has filled its hospitals to capacity, officials said Thursday.County leaders said in an afternoon briefing they had 1,274 newly diagnosed cases. In a late update, they reported 20 deaths for the day.“Despite valiant efforts on multiple fronts, the community overall has not taken this virus seriously,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said. “The tsunami is here.”The soaring numbers came as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opened a temporary “surge testing” site, vowing to swab up to 5,000 people a day at the Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg. It had problems on its first day Wednesday due to staffing shortages and patients not following directions, officials said.Those woes largely had been corrected Thursday, as the testing site ran more smoothly and wait times shortened, city spokeswoman Cary Zayas said.The federal testing site in Edinburg — one of eight set up in three cities nationwide — will continue offering free tests from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day through Tuesday.Hidalgo County residents must preregister for an appointment, print a voucher and bring it to the arena at the scheduled date and time. Patients are asked to arrive early and expect an average wait time of about two hours. No one will be allowed in line after 4 p.m.Officials painted a grim picture of how the virus has roared through Hidalgo County, home to an estimated 868,707 people on the border with Mexico and spanning almost 1,600 square miles.The total number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Hidalgo County since the pandemic began reached 7,334 on Thursday, while its cumulative death toll reached 123 by late Thursday.“For months now, we have been telling you how to protect yourself from this deadly disease — mainly to stay home and to avoid other people,” Cortez said at a briefing broadcast on Facebook Live. “For months now, the community has not followed the warnings of these experts. Neighbors are dying. Hospitals are at capacity. The rate of infection continues to rise. Yet our streets are full of activity. And I get reports from all over the county that people are not taking this disease seriously.”On ExpressNews.com:Officials said 741 COVID patients were hospitalized in Hidalgo County on Thursday afternoon. At least 194 were in intensive care units.“We’re in a dire situation,” said Dr. Ivan Melendez, a physician and Hidalgo County’s local health authority. “If all of you had the opportunity to walk into our hospitals, you would see warehouses of human beings, if you will, on stretchers and on ventilators — one right after the other after the other after the other.”Several nurses in the county have died after catching the virus, he noted. Six physicians have isolated themselves at home after being exposed.Some people brought the illness home to their loved ones, Melendez said.“Three cases this week - (a) child infected both parents - both parents dead. My own personal patients,” he said in the briefing streamed online. “This is not a conspiracy theory. This is the absolute truth.”The majority of those who died were elderly, said Eddie Olivarez, chief administrative officer of Hidalgo County Health and Human Services. Many of them were infected by younger family members who had only minimal symptoms or no symptoms at all, he said.“The message is clear — if you have tested positive for COVID, stay home,” Olivarez said. “You must adhere to the fact that this is a national emergency. If people, family members in your household are ill, (or) you’re a positive and they’re ill with similar symptoms, stay home. This is very important.”The first case of COVID surfaced in Hidalgo County on March 21, Melendez said. Three months passed before the county recorded a dozen fatalities.“Now we’re having 15, 17 people die every day. And we expect for that to continue,” Melendez said.On ExpressNews.com:“What has changed? The only thing that has changed is that we’re no longer following social distancing,” he said. “We cannot prevail without the community adhering ad nauseam to stay away from each other as much as possible.”Many patients who tried to get swabbed at the federal testing site at Ogden Arena in Edinburg were turned away Wednesday starting at 4 p.m. — two hours early — which county officials attributed to “overwhelming response.” Patients with appointments after 4 p.m. were asked to return early Thursday or Friday morning.That was partly because fewer testers showed up than expected, said Zayas, the Edinburg spokeswoman. Only 10 staffers showed up, about a third of what was anticipated, she said.“There weren’t enough people working those lines,” Zayas said. Some residents also arrived for tests on the wrong day.But at least 30 testers showed up Thursday and the drive-through operation was widened to 14 lanes, Zayas said. Wait times dropped significantly.“There were bound to be some hiccups in this,” Zayas said. “But I think it was handled very well from one day to the next. They remedied the problems, brought in more staff. Everything is running much more efficiently and quickly today.”A total of 3,175 people were tested Wednesday, while 2,951 were tested Thursday, Zayas said. Patients will be notified of their results by text message within three to five days.Peggy O’Hare covers demographics, the census and occasionally crime and general assignment stories in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Peggy, . | Twitter:

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateHidalgo County is awash in a tidal wave of COVID-19 cases that has filled its hospitals to capacity, officials said Thursday.County leaders said in an afternoon briefing they had 1,274 newly diagnosed cases. In a late update, they reported 20 deaths for the day.“Despite valiant efforts on multiple fronts, the community overall has not taken this virus seriously,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said. “The tsunami is here.”The soaring numbers came as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opened a temporary “surge...

‘Tsunami’ of COVID cases crushing Hidalgo County

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