(Seguin) – COVID-19 numbers continue to be their lowest in Guadalupe County. Although they are still keeping their fingers crossed that they will not endure a Spring Break spike, Guadalupe County Commissioners can’t help but applaud the latest decline in cases locally. Supplying those latest numbers to the commissioner’s court on Tuesday was Bryce Houlton, the county’s assistant emergency management coordinator and fire marshal.
“COVID cases, current active cases in the county is 58. Current recovery is 13,454 recovered cases for a total of 13,697 total cases. The hospitalization rate in the region as of last night was actually 3.7. Here in the county, it is right below four percent, so we are doing really good in the hospitals right now. Also, what the Governor’s order talked about was looking at the hospitalization numbers. They are still trending down at a 7–14-day average. We are pretty much a week out of Spring Break and that’s when everyone says a spike is supposed to come and we haven’t seen it yet and hopefully, it doesn’t come. Hopefully, people were smart during Spring Break and took care of themselves,” said Houlton.
County officials say the dip in numbers also appears to be aligned with a decrease in cases at local school districts. Officials at the county say the Seguin ISD this week, for example, is only reporting two student cases and one staff case.
Houlton says the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine he believes has not only prevented the spread of the virus but has also provided some much-needed relief in the community.
“The state has changed the way that they report data. They used to give us actual numbers, now they are giving us percentage(s). People vaccinated with a single dose is about 26 percent of the county population. People fully vaccinated is a little over 16.5 percent of the county’s population. That’s a pretty good number. We are in line with the majority of the counties throughout the area vaccine wise,” said Houlton.
Houlton does point out, however, that the state percentage is only based on the county’s population and might not necessarily reflect actual Guadalupe County residents who have gotten the vaccine. He says the county has had folks from all over the state utilize the local vaccine clinics.
Speaking of those vaccines, those who still haven’t received a shot are asked to jump on the waitlist for a future COVID-19 vaccine.
Residents may sign up for the waitlist at seguintexas.gov/covidvaccine. Those who have questions about the process or who have questions about their current appointment are asked to call 830-303-9701. They may also email COVID19@co.guadalupe.tx.us.