FALFURRIAS, Texas —
Brooks County Independent School District is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases as school winds down for the summer.
Superintendent Dr. Maria Rodriguez-Casas said the 28 confirmed cases at Falfurrias Junior High School are not from some of the alleged rumors.
“We’ve been very fortunate that we were at zero cases for weeks," Rodriguez-Casas said. “I know these rumors have been ramped up since last week, the 30 number. And also when we came back from the Florida trip, they were also saying those numbers.”
The Florida trip Dr. Rodriguez-Casas is referring to included 67 students traveling for a recent school trip. However, those students were in high school. According to district officials, all students are tested before and after trips. She said none tested positive when they got back.
“I think that this current spike in cases that we’re seeing, especially in the junior high school," said Ruben Ramirez, Brooks County medical coordinator and fire chief. "It’s inevitable with what I think with what we’re doing, with what we’re going through right now."
The district is working with Ramirez's team to make sure the confirmed junior high cases do not expand to other schools. Ramirez said underreporting might be an issue as Brooks County deals with a positive trend in cases.
“Now that we have all these at-home test kits, you know, most people don’t report those back, which is okay," Ramirez said. "So, we don’t really know what’s going on exactly in the community, but with the school district numbers, we can really kind of hone in a little more with what’s going on.”
Nueces County is also dealing with a positive trend in COVID-19 cases. Dr. Kim Onufrak, who is the City of Corpus Christi's interim assistant health director, said they encourage everyone who does an at-home test to report the results so they can receive remote treatment, if needed.
“You can order it, you don’t have to go to the store and get it anymore," Onufrak said. "And now that the availability of drive-thru PCR tests isn’t accessible, more and more people are turning to the at-home tests.”
Health experts said they are watching these spikes as summer break approaches and all the traveling that comes with it. Nueces County currently has an average of more than 30 daily total positive COVID-19 cases.
“It’s not just concentrated, it’s still everywhere." Onufrak said. "And so, unfortunately the numbers there are increasing, our numbers here are increasing.”
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