Friday, April 19, 2024
Hood County Public Health Authority Dr. David Blocker on Wednesday issued a COVID-19 update in the wake of the latest guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott announced on Tuesday that no governmental entities in the state can mandate masks and no public schools can require masks on their campuses. The executive order pertaining to governmental entities will take effect Friday and the new guideline for schools will become effective June 5.
Blocker stated that those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are not currently at risk of becoming sick from the disease or transmitting it to others, regardless of whether they wear a mask or practice social distancing.
He urged those who have not been fully vaccinated to continue to respect the rights of others by following public health guidelines.
Blocker noted that although the pandemic has not ended and variants of COVID-19 continue to cause severe illness in local residents, resulting in hospitalizations, intensive care stays and deaths, those numbers are much lower than they were at the first of the year.
He currently places Hood County at moderate risk for COVID-19 transmission.
Blocker said that the county continues to have between 3-5 people hospitalized with COVID-19-related illnesses each day. The county has a positive test result rate of about 11%, he said, with between 18 and 78 new lab-confirmed cases each week.
Hood County has achieved some important milestones, based on local numbers and this week’s reports from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), Blocker noted. More than 65% of seniors age 65 and older are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and more than 35% of the adult population is fully vaccinated as well.
COVID-19 vaccines are now available to everyone 18 and older through local pharmacies and medical offices as the county phases out its volunteer efforts at the Granbury ISD Admin building, the public health official said.
Blocker weighed in on Abbott’s Executive Order GA-36, which does not end state-level pandemic response activities but specifies that most state and local government entities and officials cannot mandate face coverings outside hospitals, judicial/justice departments, jails and state-supported living centers.
“To me, this means that every Texan should make their own decisions to vaccinate, social distance, wear face coverings, handwash and use other infectious precautions outside of those specific settings,” he stated.
Blocker expressed gratitude Hood County Emergency Management Coordinator Jay Webster, Texas EMS Director Ricky Reeves and others who played a role in administering more than 23,000 vaccine doses at the Hood County vaccination hub over the past three months.
“One of my key goals for Hood County is to work with state, county and city officials to leverage available relief funds and interest to build local public health infrastructure where we can focus and organize future efforts in response to public health emergencies as well as to better support unmet health needs of our population,” Blocker stated.
