Just hours after City health officials confirmed a sixth case of coronavirus among local residents, the total confirmed count nearly doubled.
Bexar County now has 11 confirmed cases, according to local surveillance data, all of which can be traced back to travel-related contraction. The increase came as local labs including Quest and Pro Lab reported positive test results to the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department.
Of the 11 positive cases, four were travel-related, diagnosed in people who traveled outside of San Antonio, and four were people who were in close contact with someone who was already infected. Three cases are currently under investigation.
Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger said private labs reported the number of positive test results, and the City does not know how many people tested outside of Metro Health turned up negative for the virus.
“There are still no community spread cases of COVID-19,” City officials said Tuesday evening.
The updated information posted to the Metro Health website comes after Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick on Monday said the City is working to be “as transparent as possible” with testing. A COVID-19 testing task force, which includes representatives from the South Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), under the Department of State Health Services, will look into local and nationwide trends to expand who receives priority testing.
Metro Health said it will update its COVID-19 surveillance page by 6:30 p.m. each day, to include the number of positive and negative test results produced by the City-run lab, as well as any positive test results from area labs.
Gov. Greg Abbott said on Monday as testing availability continues to increase locally and throughout the state, “people need to be prepared and not shocked that once widespread testing is implemented, a lot more people are going to be testing positive.”
For now, City officials are prioritizing health care workers, first responders, and seniors over age 60 who have a temperature of 99.6 degrees or higher.
“As conditions change both locally and nationally, we will be able to expand testing criteria to include” other vulnerable populations, Emerick said.
