CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — According to Nueces County officials, since Nueces started seeing coronavirus cases in March, 85 babies under the age of 1 have tested positive.
During the local Coronavirus Task Force briefing on July 17, researchers estimated that 1 in every 8 residents in the Coastal Bend is actively infected with COVID-19.
As more positive cases are being discovered across our area, the need for more medical personnel is also growing.
July 17 also brought over 300 new cases of COVID-19 with 12 deaths. There are now over 7,000 active cases in Nueces County.
"We're in the middle of an outbreak within an outbreak," Dr. Chris Bird with the Coronavirus Task Force said. "An outbreak is an increase in the occurrence of disease that's happened around the world and it's happened here in Texas and it's happened here in the Coastal Bend a little bit worse than most other places in Texas."
Dr. Bird said fatalities have not peaked either. With more positive cases of COVID-19 comes more deaths.
"Ask yourself that, 'how many lives is it worth you saving on average for you to decide to wear a mask?' Dr. Bird said. "This is the way that COVID works. When you get to such a large number of cases, it becomes a mathematical exercise unfortunately of how many people are going to die."
Dr. Bird gave an example to help paint a picture for the community about how close COVID is.
'"There's more than eight people in the room. There's a good chance that if we're a random sample in the Coastal Bend, at least one person in the room has COVID-19 right now."
Dr. Bird said what we're experiencing right now is the result of our actions from two weeks ago. It's important to practice healthy habits sooner than later for positive results in the future.
Good news is that from what the task force predicts, the transmission rate is said to be decreasing based off of tracking data in cell phones.
"What we're doing now is better than what we were doing seven to 14 days ago based on our cell phone data, so we have every reason to believe, the transmission rate is declining," Dr. Bird said.
Additional Highlights:
- 12 COVID deaths, 310 new coronavirus cases in Nueces County today.
- City employee Tammy Rodriguez Womack from the Parks and Rec Senior Center has died from the virus.
- There's now space for 40 more ICU beds at Christus Spohn hospital.
- Over 33,000 tests have been taken in Nueces County.
- Transmission rate for the Coastal Bend is estimated to be 1.3 - 1.4.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
More from 3News on KIIITV.com:
- Not all counties have health departments. Who will decide whether students return to school in counties without a local health authority?
- Dating in the age of the coronavirus pandemic: Get to know the other person’s day-to-day habits, health
- More than 100 medical personnel have arrived to local hospitals this week
- Sheriff Hooper: 87 inmates now cleared of the coronavirus, some jail employees refuse testing