Coryell County sees more than 100 new cases of COVID-19 since Oct. 30
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Like other parts of Texas, Copperas Cove and Coryell County have seen a surge in positive COVID-19 cases since the end of October.
The city of Copperas Cove issued its weekly update for COVID-19 cases on Monday Nov. 9, with a cumulative case count of 516, to include 92 active cases within the city limits. The next update will be released on Nov. 16.
Coryell County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Harrell talked about the increasing new cases.
“I received about another 60 addresses this morning, between yesterday afternoon and this morning. That includes also the school reporting,” Harrell said on Tuesday. “Since the 2nd of November through today, I’m looking at close to 80 new cases or more. Between the difference on the 2nd of November and today was 60-some cases, and another 60 today. We’re looking at some high cases now and we definitely have a surge going on.”
As of Tuesday Nov. 10, the total case count in Coryell County jumped to 934, with 237 active cases, as per the county’s COVID-19 tracker. This does not include cases totals and numbers from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Harrell attributes this increase to the Halloween time period.
Going by the addresses listed on the report he receives from Texas DSHS, Harrell said that many of the new positive cases are entire households whose members have tested positive for the virus.
Looking ahead to Thanksgiving, which is in a little less than two weeks, there is more concern ahead.
“We have a lot of households that are totally positive,” Harrell said. “If you could see the list of addresses that I receive, you will see that a lot of households, are totally positive.”
Harrell described a scenario taking place in the county.
“You come home, to your spouse or significant other, parents, kids, you pose a threat to them if you’re out and not wearing a mask. What I’ve been trying to preach to everyone, assume everyone is positive. If you do that, you will take the steps, wash your hands, keep a mask on, and try to distance yourself from others. I know it’s hard to do in some environments…the Governor put out the mask order, but no one is enforcing the fact that we’re supposed to be wearing masks.
“This is not a political thing, this is a virus. It does not care who you are or what you are.”
CCISD sees continued uptick in positive student cases at high school, Homecoming varsity game canceled
Active positive cases among students at Copperas Cove High School make up the majority of the active cases among CCISD students and staff, according to the CCISD webpage which is updated as new cases are added and older cases recover.
On Thursday at press time, the district listed a total of 36 active cases among students and staff, with 25 students and nine staff.
The majority of the active cases include 20 students at Copperas Cove High School. It was announced on Thursday morning that the varsity football game would be canceled, for the third varsity game in a row. The Friday, Nov. 20 varsity football game was to have been played at home, and was the district’s homecoming game. However, the freshman and JV football teams will play on Thursday, Nov. 19, as scheduled as of press time.
Game cancelations and campus closings haven’t only taken place at CCISD.
Gatesville ISD announced that it would close on Wednesday after school and will remain closed until Tuesday, November 17.
“From the start of school (through) October 31, there had only been 17 active cases involving students or staff. In the first 10 days of November between students and staff, there are 31 active cases and many awaiting test results.”
Cases surge in region and state
Over in Bell County, the county’s Public Health District Director, Dr. Amanda Chadwell, made a statement on Monday about the increase in that county.
“We were expecting a post-Halloween spike any day and we saw it hit today with 124 new cases received today alone. There were some additional cases reported over the weekend and a few added cases for Friday bringing us to a total of 6,903 cases and 6,287 recovered. We currently have 616 active cases and our incidence rate spiked to 169.7 per 100,000 in the County. As a result of this we changed our COVID-19 threat level from Level 3 which is ‘Moderate, Controlled Transmission’ to Level 2 which is ‘Significant Uncontrolled Community Transmission’…With this kind of a spike from Halloween we are certainly apprehensive about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and we implore our residents to take every available measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state of Texas continues to climb toward the 1,000,000-case mark, with 985,380 as of Wednesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
However, according to Johns Hopkins University’s global tracker, the state broke the 1,000,000-case mark and now stands at 1,022,336 cases.
Cases in the state of Texas now make up 10 percent of the total number of cases nationwide, with the U.S. at 10,392,702 as of Wednesday. Texas has an estimated 137,022 active cases and has had 19,004 fatalities.
Statewide hospitalizations for COVID-19 statewide numbered 6,779, making up 10.08 percent of those hospitalized in Texas.
Locally, in Trauma Service Region L hospitals, which include hospitals in Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Milam, and Mills counties, as of Wednesday there were 66 hospitalized due to COVID-19, out of a total of 1,231 hospitalized in area hospitals. This makes up 5.36 percent of local hospitalizations.
On Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott’s office announced the deployment of two Auxiliary Medical Units (AMU) to Lubbock to assist with onsite surge capacity for local hospitals, with additional AMU’s available in the region if needed. The state has also surged additional medical personnel to the Panhandle and South Plains to assist area hospitals.
His office also announced that the Alternate Care Site in El Paso, established in late October, is increasing capacity from 65 beds to 100 beds by Friday.
Brown University School of Public Health shows the Risk Level of Texas Counties. Coryell County is presently Risk Level Yellow, with 9 cases per 100,000, but is rapidly approaching Risk Level Orange, with accelerated spread.
COVID-19 cases in Central Texas*
Bell County 531 active cases (6,754 total)
Burnet County 272 active cases (1,139 total)
Coryell County 237 active cases (934 total)
Copperas Cove (city) 92 active cases (516 total)
TDCJ in Coryell Co 5 active cases (1,110 total)
Lampasas County 21 active cases (434 total)
McLennan County 812 active cases (11,093 total)
Williamson County 249 active cases (9,848 total)
*As of press time Thursday, numbers from Texas DSHS, City of Copperas Cove, Coryell County, TDCJ COVID-19 dashboard, Bell County Public Health District