The holiday season and large gatherings of family members—especially from out of state—were a concern of County Medical Epidemiologist Eric Schneider.
"About the number of cases that we're seeing right now per day is about [where] we were right at the beginning of May, and then, we had the Memorial Day-Father's Day-Fourth of July surge that sent us skyrocketing and the rest of Texas skyrocketing as well," Schneider said. "We're hoping that we don't see the exact same kind of increase, but unfortunately, at the moment, we are kind of trending in that exact same pattern."
Schneider and county spokesperson Kim Hilsenbeck noted that any lockdown orders would be in the hands of elected officials; however, their ability to do so is currently limited.
"We should point out that local orders can never supersede state orders," Hilsenbeck said. "Some of it may depend on if [Gov. Greg] Abbott decides to make changes or restrictions or close businesses down or lower their capacity levels, but anything that we do locally would never be more than what they tell us to do from the state level."
According to Schneider, there were roughly 30 new cases reported every day, but that number has risen to nearly 50. On Nov. 17, the county reported 78 lab-confirmed cases.
The concern over the rise in cases was compounded by the increase of other coronavirus metrics.
"That's a pretty large spike, but the big concern was that we recorded seven new hospitalizations yesterday," Schneider said. "That is definitely the largest number of one-day hospitalizations that we recorded since this began."
Hays County officials offered positive insights as well. Although the number of cases on school campuses has increased, Schneider noted that there was no evidence of classroom or campus spreading. He instead attributed these cases to off-campus events.
Free testing for the virus is available at five locations in the county: Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, Dripping Springs and Wimberley. More information was on these testing options was made available on the county's website.
Schneider also offered clarification as to how likely it is for children to transmit the virus and said that a child can spread it or contract it as easily as an adult.
"The risk that comes with this is the fact that a lot of minors are asymptomatic and tend to be carriers and don't know that they have disease," Schneider said.
The epidemiologist also told the Zoom meeting attendees that his department was not recommending family gatherings over the holiday season, despite the fatigue community members may feel toward the pandemic.
"If you do have to get together with your family—if it's something that you've already scheduled, and you're not going to cancel—we just want you to do it safe and do it the proper way. Outdoor picnic-style would be ideal," Schneider said. "Having large gatherings of people from all over indoors is just increasing your risk of somebody who might just be asymptomatic and could be spreading it throughout the whole family, and, definitely, COVID-19 is not one of the gifts that you want to give this year during the holidays."
Hays County COVID-19 data
As of Nov. 18, there were 750 active and lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus among Hays County residents in the previous 21 days, and 6,833 to date.
The month began with just under 400 active cases of the virus and the total case count Oct. 30 was 6,132, a difference of 701.
Schneider noted that the recent uptick in cases could be due to people becoming more relaxed toward the pandemic.
"If you go to a grocery store, you're starting to see people who are getting a little more relaxed with the masks—they're wearing it under their chin, [or] they're carrying it in their hand," Schneider said. "We need everyone to understand that we are still in the middle of a pandemic."
Probable cases increased from 799 to 824 over the previous seven days. During the same period of time, 248 new cases and 3,462 new tests for the coronavirus were reported by the county.
As of Nov. 17, there were six county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 within the county, and four others were being treated in different counties.
However, a Kyle resident was reported Nov. 18 to have died from the virus, and active hospitalizations decreased from the previous day by one. It was not immediately known if the Kyle resident was one of the hospitalized community members.
County officials encouraged residents to socially distance themselves, wash their hands, wear masks and take other precautionary measures.
"A lot of the control for this, I think, is on us—like, each of us in the community—and remembering that we do these things to help everybody else and the most vulnerable in our community," Hilsenbeck said.
