NUECES COUNTY, Texas — According to the Nueces County Health Department, 60 babies 1 year or younger tested positive for the virus in July. The other 25 tested positive between March 31 - June 30.
Health Director Annette Rodriguez said the babies were not all from the same daycare, church, etc. These babies tested at different times and locations. Rodriguez said some have tested at the hospital, pediatrician offices, urgent care clinics, and the county drive-thru clinic.
Driscoll Children's Hospital said that 68 children under the year of one tested positive between March 4 - July 17. Nine out of the 68 babies have been hospitalized and discharged since March. One infant under the age of six months has died. The cause of death was classified as SIDS.
Health officials said the best way to protect babies, if they do test positive, is to limit the exposure to others. Only the caregiver should be around the baby.
Nueces County Health Director Annette Rodriguez said the recent case of a newborn baby testing positive for COVID prompted her to look closely at cases in children under the age of 24 months.
When she made the announcement that 85 babies tested positive in the public news briefing Friday, the public was understandably shocked and confused.
Why after weeks of testing and data coming from the health department was nothing said along the way? It has to do with how positive cases are documented in Nueces County and across Texas.
Numbers are classified under different age brackets. The youngest group being persons 19 years of age and younger. Specific numbers for specific groups such as school-aged children or children under two years are not recorded unless the local health department takes action.
"If you have 25 cases over ninety days, it doesn't look like any kind of a trend, but when you have 60 cases in 16 days, there's a trend there," Rodriguez said.
Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales said she heard the news when the rest of us did. While it's shocking the fact that 85 babies have tested positive in our county, it points to a bigger picture.
"It was meant to drive home a very important valid point: 'anybody is susceptible to COVID-19,' from the youngest to the oldest," Canales said.
Rodriguez said her department is in the process of updating their system, and once it's operational in about two weeks, we should get more specific and useful data. It will help all of us have a greater understanding of this catastrophic situation.
"What I want to know is what are the long term effects?" Rodriguez said. "I think a lot of that is more important than the data or a statistical number. I want to know about this virus to we can know how to combat it. That's what I want to know."
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