NUECES COUNTY, Texas — While federal officials are busy trying to track down everyone who came into contact with the President and First Lady over three past few days, the director of our health department, Annette Rodriguez, explains how that contact tracing job may be a bit difficult.
"It’s the ones that you don’t think about, you know, 'How close was I to the pilot? Did I go over there and stick my head in and have a private conversation with the pilot? Do I even remember that I did that?' Rodriguez said.
"Because, especially, like the president, who has such a busy schedule, I mean even though I’m sure he has people writing down his schedule and they know his schedule, but they don’t know exactly what he does every minute of every day if they’re not with him."
Rodriguez added that her department follows the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for contact tracing.
”What we do is we go back to days prior and CDC recommends that later as well, to go back to days prior to becoming symptomatic, 'Was he symptomatic or was he just tested as an exposure to a case?' Rodriguez said.
"There’s so many things that go in the contact tracing. I’ve even heard this morning that they’re talking about the contacts to the contacts, well we say we don’t go too deep.”
Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales knows a thing or two about the fear of catching COVID-19. She and a number of her support staff ended up having to quarantine after Hurricane Hanna, after one of them tested positive for the virus.
This happened after they all had been together in the Emergency Operation Center during the hurricane. That close call prompted the judge to change the way the next emergency will be handled.
"We now have a protocol that if we go into the EOC, we get COVID tested prior to being all together, where we know we’re going to be in close quarters," Rodriguez said.
"We also made sure we took extra precautions in the sleeping arrangements so we would even try to use coverings while we were sleeping.”
Mayor Joe McComb said he hopes for a full and speedy recovery for the president and the first lady. But he says this is a reminder that social distancing and wearing masks are the best options for everyone to follow.
"I think this reinforces the fact that you really do need, on an individual basis, take responsibility of looking after yourself and following the protocols being extremely careful because you can get this; there’s no absolute guarantee that you won’t," McComb said.
"I’ve been fortunate because I wear my mask anytime I’m out in public."
Rodriguez also pointed out that those over the age of 65 and with comorbidities will have the worst outcomes of any age group when it comes to having COVID-19.