CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's been nearly two months since COVID-19 drastically changed everyday life for so many across the U.S., Texas, and right here at home.
People have lost jobs, churches have closed their doors, school campuses shut down for the remainder of the year, large festivals canceled, and so many other unforeseen circumstances have now become a reality. Also in that time, area health leaders have been working on the ways to best protect their communities while also learning about this illness.
"Some of the things that we’ve seen is that COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate against certain ages, it doesn’t really matter what age you are, you can get COVID-19," said Annette Rodriguez, health director for Corpus Christi, Nueces County Public Health District.
“I don’t normally give the health district a lot of credit, but I’m going to have to give them credit now where credit is due, because they’ve been very flexible in moving from answering the phones to then the contact tracing. We moved a lot of the individuals over and trained them on contact tracing”
"Contact tracing," that's a term many of us had probably never really had to learn or perhaps even heard of up until now. However, this technique has become instrumental in tracking COVID-19.
"Contact tracing is probably the most important job that you can have in a pandemic because if you’re able to identify all of those contacts and keep them in that containment if you will and keep them from spreading to other people then you’re going to be successful," Rodriguez said. "At the beginning, we thought anybody that’s come in contact with them could actually get COVID-19 which they still can, but it’s not as common as we thought it was going to be.
Rodriguez explained that her department began analyzing several other states and even parts of Mexico on their containment efforts and reaction to COVID-19, well before the first confirmed cast in Nueces County. In comparison to certain parts of West, Central and North Texas, the Coastal Bend region has lower case counts.
"Some people say 'luck', there’s not a lot of luck. We’re really having to bank on the knowledge that we have in trying to contain this as much as possible."
Despite various containment efforts, the demand and need for more COVID-19 testing and extraction kits remains constant. Rodriguez explained that before the area's first COVID-19 case, her team met with all local hospitals on what the plan of action would be, in which everyone agreed drive-thrus would help with efficiency while also keeping the inside of hospitals safe for patients who needed to be there.
Since those tests first began being administered to now, restrictions have loosened. Rodriguez said while they used to include history of travel and if someone had a fever or not, that's not the case now. If you have any symptoms consistent with COVID-19, you should be eligible, but you are still urged to call ahead and need to make an appointment.
"So there shouldn’t be any reason you shouldn’t be able to go through the drive-thru now because if you have those symptoms they should be able to test you and put your mind at ease," Rodriguez said.
Dr. James Mobley is the Health Authority for San Patricio County. It's a title he's held since 1990 and explains he's, "been through a lot of rodeos since then," referencing hurricanes, H1N1, the Zika Virus and more.
Mobley did acknowledge however, that there are a lot of firsts with COVID-19 in that it was the "first to shut down complete activities for," and that it's an "interesting virus," because of how widespread it has been.
Behind Nueces County, San Patricio continues to have the second-most cases for the Coastal Bend region, with just over 10 at this time.
"The real heroes in all of this have been our private physician offices. The health department has had tremendous problems just getting a hold of testing material," said Mobley.
We’re able to do it in kind of little bits and we’ve talked to folks all up and down the line, and it’s throughout Texas it’s not just us, but our private physicians have stepped up, they’ve identified the cases, they’ve treated people and so they’re our real heroes, just these little physicians offices that are scattered throughout. "Private physicians who use a private lab, usually the testing is done overnight and usually they get the info by 7 the next morning. Those of us using the public and state labs, for a lot of reasons, it takes longer to do."
Mobley says looking ahead, he is hoping to get more blood testing capabilities. Currently, the county has been using nasal swabs.
When asked about his reaction to the Governor's announcement Monday on certain Texas businesses reopening on Friday, Mobley shared he's been working with various restaurants, churches and other establishments throughout the county on how to make sure safety is still at the forefront.
"We're going to find more cases as we do more testing, but I’m really not too worried about folks getting out and about," Mobley said. "Everybody I’ve talked to that’s planning to reopen has a plan on how to do it safely, so I think the governor is doing well here."
For Coronavrius information from the Nueces County - City of Corpus Christi health district, click here. If you believe you may have the coronavirus, call 361-826-7200, and a representative will instruct you on how to proceed.
If you are a San Patricio County resident with questions and concerns relating to COVID-19, you can call 361-201-0551 between the hours of 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Mon. - Fri.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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