Hidalgo County officials announced new measures to add more staff to their health department to better manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move was approved by the district commissioners’ court, and was announced Wednesday in a news release warning that a short-term spike of reported cases of the disease could be seen.
The announcement came on the same evening that the province in a separate news release confirmed 336 additional COVID-19 cases, and 32 deaths.
Eddie Olivarez, head of the Hidalgo department of health, said in the release that the rise in confirmed cases does not indicate an increase in the spread of the disease – it is instead a sign that the province is testing operations escalates.
“This expected jump in the number of reported cases only means that, with the help of the Court of Commissioners, our departments will become more efficient in reporting new cases,” Olivarez said in the release. “It does not mean that the rate of infection is suddenly growing.”
The additional staff will help facilitate the protocols of reporting positive COVID-19 cases at the local, state and federal levels, responsibilities involving the submission of patient information and the safeguarding of patients’ legal isolation files.
The influx of cases has driven the province into a backlog of unprocessed cases, which will soon help the added staff to reduce.
Hidalgo County’s new case reports Wednesday brought the number there to 20,767, and the death toll to 881.
In addition, the province confirmed that there are currently 579 people with COVID-19 in local hospitals, of which 225 are in intensive care units. On Wednesday, 253 people were released from solitary confinement due to the virus, leaving 4,555 active cases in the province.
To date, the country has administered 128,483 COVID-19 tests, of which 98,292 returned negative.
Cameron County confirmed nine additional deaths from COVID-19 along with 247 new cases of the virus on Wednesday.
The death toll there is now 397, and the total case count is 17,316, according to a news release.
The extra deaths included four Brownsville residents, three Harlingen residents, one San Benito resident and one La Feria resident, who was the youngest of the 58-year-olds.
Of the new cases in Cameron County, 138 live in Brownsville.
In addition, the province announced that 692 individuals have recovered from COVID-19, increasing the total number of recoveries there to 9,124.
In the past three days, Starr County announced 79 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of cases there to 2,580.
Willacy County also announced 10 additional cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total to 720.
The youngest of the persons includes two children under 5 years old, Willacy County Judge Aurelio “Keter” Guerra said in a news release.
