From: dailytoreador.com
City of Lubbock officials gave an update on COVID-19 cases in local schools and testing efforts during a virtual news conference Wednesday.
Katherine Wells, director of the Lubbock Health Department, said Lubbock County has a total of 6,975 cases and 1,467 active cases as of Tuesday evening. There have been seven additional deaths this past week attributed to COVID-19.
“We do see a true decrease in the number of cases and that really does have to do with the mask mandate,” Wells said.
Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope said 6,400 tests have been administered in the last seven days. All cases are being included in the dashboard total, including one’s from Texas Tech and Lubbock school districts.
During this time, the health department is continuing to encourage the guidelines set at both the state and national level such as hand washing and social distancing, Wells said.
“We also want to encourage flu vaccinations. We really will be facing a twin epidemic when the 2020-2021 influenza season starts,” Wells said.
This flu season is an important time to minimize the number of patients needing hospital care in order to prevent Lubbock’s health care system from being overwhelmed by both flu and COVID-19 cases, Wells said.
In addition, the health of students in Lubbock schools also was discussed.
Lubbock Cooper Independent School District Superintendent Keith Bryant said, 85 percent of their students are learning in-person, and they are ensuring the virtual students also are receiving a quality education.
Lubbock Cooper ISD has had two COVID-19 cases reported at Laura Bush Middle School and South Elementary School, Bryant said. The two cases were not reported to be spread from the campus.
When a positive case is reported in the schools, every family and staff member is notified and contact tracing is done to determine who was potentially exposed, Bryant said.
Lubbock City Councilman Steve Massengale said the city is encouraging community members to support local businesses during this time as many of them rely on their businesses to provide for themselves and their families.
“972 businesses have self-certified themselves as Lubbock Safe,” Massengale said. “If you’re a business that has been thinking about it or had looked up the Lubbock Safe Program, I encourage you to go ahead and get that certification completed.”
Lastly, the return of college students to Lubbock also was discussed.
Pope was concerned by students returning to campus and their behavior in the community, he said. With case numbers slowing down, it’s important that the progress that has been made is not jeopardized.
The city is actively responding to large gatherings including house parties, Pope said.
“We are not only responding to these parties, we are patrolling, and we will enforce the law,” he said. “It’s important we do not throw away the efforts made to provide safety in our community.”
The city will continue their communication with Tech and the administration on the efforts in place to keep the community safe as students return to campus, Pope said. There is also communication being done between Lubbock police and Tech law enforcement.
“If we see the positivity rate rise, we can work with our universities and school districts on how to handle that,” Massengale said.