County cases near 1,000

STAFF REPORT

Spike in cases?
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino talks at Wednesday’s press conference about the increase in COVID-19 cases in the county.
(Courtesy photo)

According to media reports, COVID-19 cases across Texas, including Cameron County, have been increasing. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., held his first press conference in three weeks to address the rising cases. 

Treviño said new daily cases had been in the “low teens” before the state’s first phase of reopening, on May 1, then jumped higher, with 20 COVID-19 cases confirmed on May 27. The daily confirmed cases returned to the “low teens” until the first week of June, where the cases started rising. 

This week, daily cases have increased as high as 39, according to the Cameron County Public Health press release published after Judge Treviño’s press conference.

Treviño also said that there has been an increase in COVID-19 positive people needing hospitalization. 

Dr. James Castillo, Cameron County health authority, said the department has noticed an increase of “family clusters,” where persons contract COVID-19 outside of the home but infect persons living with them. 

Castillo said about 60 COVID-19 positive people in Cameron County have been hospitalized and anticipates that hospitalizations will increase.

“For people who think that the economy has opened and this has passed, that’s not true,” Castillo said. “This is in our community and we still need to do what we can to minimize the risk of transmission, and the risk is only going to go up every week.”

As of press time, there are 990 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cameron County, with 686 people recovering from the disease, according to data from Cameron County Health Department. Forty-two people have died from COVID-19 in Cameron County, the latest being two individuals, 65 and 67-year-old males from Brownsville.

Editor’s note: This article has been edited for length. To read the full story, click here or make sure to grab a copy of the June 12-18, 2020 issue of the NEWS.