San Saba County now has seven cases of COVID-19, according to the City of San Saba website. Four cases are in the San Saba city limits, and three are outside the city. This posted information was as of July 5th.
The following response by Dr. Whiting, Texas Department of State Health Services Local Health Authority, concerns the current case count and overall status of San Saba County cases: “Yes, we now have had 7 cases of COVID officially assigned to San Saba County.”
“As the numbers grow, it will be important to keep in mind that not all cases ascribed to the county are ‘active,’ some are recovered or not present in the county. The total number (at this time 7) is important epidemiologically, but the number of active, resident cases is important for understanding immediate risk of contagion. As of now, I would suggest that we have two active cases in the county – both of whom are sequestering to avoid contact and contagion – and five cases that are either recovered or not residing in the county at this time. We have one person from San Saba who is currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and there have been no deaths of COVID patients from our county. No COVID patient works in a public access business.
“It would be good to remind anyone who has been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID that they should consider themselves at risk of having, and therefore potentially spreading, COVID – even if they are asymptomatic. Many people have mild symptoms with COVID and, if not isolating, can be spreading the infection to people who are at great risk of having serious complications from the infection. Close contact would be people in the same household, co workers or anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of someone who was diagnosed with COVID. These people should consider themselves contagious and isolate themselves for 10 days, checking temperature twice a day and reporting fever or symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of sense of smell or taste, sore throat, headache, body aches). If any of these symptoms appear, they should call their doctor’s office (call, do not go to the office) to get instructions on how to proceed.”
Dr. Whiting also stated, “Tracking of cases will help determine the source of infection and allow us to try to contain the virus before it spreads to others.”
For up-to-date info from the City leaders, go to: <http://www.sansabatexas.com/mayor-citycouncil/covid-19-centralizedinformation/>.