Monday, April 06, 2020

San Angelo's Second COVID-19 Cluster


San Angelo's tenth COVID-19 case spread the disease to three people when they visited a local business.  The man in his 30's had an unknown source of his disease.  Three women in their 40's contracted the disease as a result of this person visiting their place of work.  This is the second publicly known cluster.  A local family had the coronavirus spread through their household.

City officials stopped sharing information on new individual cases on their COVID-19 webpage.  They are sharing basic information about the patient's sex and age with the media for new positive tests.

Contrast this approach with South Korea, a country which used data and information to arm authorities and citizens to intelligently combat the COVID-19 threat.

The result of the tracking is not only used by health authorities but also made public via national and local government websites, free smartphone apps that show the locations of infections, and text message updates about new local cases. This help citizens avoid hotspots of infections.
South Korea mobilized massive resources right away to stop the coronavirus from overwhelming their country.  They have mostly contained their first wave.  The United States' COVID-19 tsunami may crest soon in hard hit parts of the country, but the water level is rising in non-hotspots.

Pray that those stricken with the disease make a full recovery and for the safety of family, friends and our community.

Update 4-6-20:  The City reported 3 new COVID-19 cases, two preteen females and a male 50-59.  The total is 24 cases.  All had contact with known cases in our community.

Update 4-8-20:  There are 25 cases of COVID-19, three of which have recovered to the point they are no longer being tracked.  The newest case is a male teenager with no known contact with a COVID-19 patient, making it another case of community spread.

Update 4-9-20:  A man in his 70's died from COVID-19   Case #1 and Case #9 were men in their 70's.  It's not clear which case died from city reports. 

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