A&M-Commerce reports surge in COVID-19 cases
Apr. 15—The Hunt County Commissioners Court has voted to continue the county's existing COVID-19 resolution, which will be dependent on what the district judges and Texas Governor may decide in the next two weeks.
While state health officials have not updated the Hunt County COVID-19 statistics for the past few weeks, representatives with Texas A&M-Commerce have reported a surge of cases of the virus on the university's campus.
Meanwhile, about one out of every four Hunt County residents older than 16 have reportedly received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
During Tuesday's regular session, the commissioners were scheduled to consider the resolution, which has been renewed and modified for about a year.
County Civil Attorney Daniel Ray said the newest version did not include any significant changes.
"The only changes to the previous resolutions was the changes to the dates themselves," Ray said.
The resolution, which passed on a unanimous vote of the commissioners court, included last month's order by 196th District Court Judge Andrew Bench, to begin jury trials at the Hunt County Courthouse for the first time since March 2020 and the most recent executive orders concerning COVID-19 by Governor Greg Abbott.
Ray said the county's latest resolution included language which would allow for any additional orders from the governor and would be in place until the next commissioners regular session on April 27. The county's resolution can be found online at http://www.huntcounty.net/upload/page/8875/docs/COVID%20resolution%2016694.pdf
The Hunt County Health Department has announced it would no longer be issuing daily reports on local statistics related to the virus, as the information will be released by the Texas Department of State Health Services at https://tinyurl.com/2475c5vh
Meanwhile, the state agency listed 5,498 total cases of the virus in Hunt County Wednesday, with 5,295 recoveries. Both statistics have been unchanged since March 22.
Texas A&M-Commerce issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, reporting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases on campus.
"This upward trend is in stark contrast to the downward trends over the same 14-day period in Hunt County and Texas," the statement read.
"Many new positive cases at A&M-Commerce have been traced to off-campus parties where social distancing practices were lax or non-existent. According to CDC recommendations, even vaccinated people should continue to wear face masks and practice social distancing. Although there appears to be an end in sight at the state level, we must remain vigilant for ourselves, our families and our fellow Lions."
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported that 24.67% of the Hunt County population 16 years and older had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday, with 18.04% being fully vaccinated.
The report said 53.15% of the population 65 and older had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and with 44,38% being fully vaccinated
Multiple locations in Hunt County were reported to have quantities of the Pfizer and/or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in stock as of Wednesday morning. The list is available online at https://vaccinefinder.org/search/
Numbers of those vaccinated in Hunt County and in each county across the state is available online at https://tinyurl.com/29mgxxan
