COVID-19 case count increases by 14 in Gonzales County

After no new cases were reported for three days, 14 were reported on Tuesday, August 4 according to the State Department of State Health Services Region 8 report shared by Gonzales County Judge Patrick C. Davis.

This addition of new cases brings the total number of active cases in the county to 41, with 603 estimated to have recovered as the DSHS is no longer actively monitoring cases, opting to use a time-based inference model instead.

Gonzales falls within the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, also identified by the DSHS as Region P, which has 1,089 lab-confirmed hospitalizations due to COVID-19. It is unclear how many of these hospitalizations are in Gonzales County. This is down from a high of 1,563 lab-confirmed hospitalizations on July 14. There are 684 general beds of the 1,089 occupied by COVID-19 in this region, as well as 393 patients in Intensive Care Unit beds being treated for COVID-19.

At the most recent meeting of the Gonzales County Commissioner’s Court, Emergency Management Coordinator Jimmy Harless explained the difference between probable and confirmed cases. Harless said this section of the DSHS report simply indicates that while those people have tested positive for the coronavirus, their addresses have not been verified to be within the boundaries of Gonzales County. He said Emergency Management is on hold as far as reporting on coronavirus cases is due to issues with clarity and accuracy amid changes to reporting methods by the state.

“At this point we’re kind of on hold because we don’t want to put something out whereby it’s not as accurate as we can be,” Harless said.