Thursday, April 25, 2024
Messenger News Reporter
Coryell County Commissioners
held their regular meeting telephonically
on Monday to provide
an update about coronavirus disease
2019 and discuss other county business.
County Judge Roger Miller
discussed the continued growth of
COVID-19 cases across the county
and reiterated his previous remarks
that the pandemic affects are far
from over.
COVID-19 numbers
As of Monday afternoon, Coryell
County had reported a total of 208
cases of COVID-19. Of those cases,
28 are active, 22 have recovered,
two people are deceased and 156 of
the positive cases are Texas Department
of Criminal Justice inmates.
Monday’s totals refl ect an increase
of three cases since Friday,
two of those are county residents
and one is a TDCJ inmate. Both of
the new community cases are Copperas
Cove area residents; a female
in her 30s and a female in her 20s.
The number of recovered patients
held at 22 over the weekend.
The TDCJ website was refl ecting 83
cases in inmates on Monday, which
refl ected a continued discrepancy
between numbers reported by the
Texas Department of State Health
Services and those reported by
TDCJ.
That discrepancy in numbers
continues to be a point of frustration
for Miller.
“The discrepancy in that is two
things,” Miller said. “No. 1, they get
reported in the county where they
are tested or where they’re currently
occupied; however, according to
both Mr. (Bryan) Collier (TDCJ
executive director) and Mr. (Carol)
Monroe (TDCJ Region VI director),
within the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, they continue to
move inmates around as needed.”
TDCJ has hospital facilities
around the state to care for inmates
and the county does not know where
those inmates go or if they come
back to facilities in Coryell County.
“There is no follow up. We have
no insight as to who has recovered
or who is moved out or who is
moved in,” Miller said, adding that
the county will continue to see a
growing separation between the
numbers the county is reporting and
the numbers reported by TDCJ. “We
have no mechanism to have any visibility
on any type of follow up.”
There is no interstate agency
agreement between TDCJ and
DSHS to continually update the
state on the status of the inmate
patients.
“Don’t be alarmed that that
number continues to grow,” Miller
said. “What I really focus on are
the active cases and the recovered
cases. Ultimately, what we want to
see is the number of active cases
going to be zero and our recovered
cases be whatever we had minus the
inmates.”
The prison system continues to
be the county judge’s No. 1 concern.
Ad campaign, testing
On April 30, Miller, Gatesville
Mayor Gary Chumley and Copperas
Cove Mayor Bradi Diaz
penned and sent a letter to District
59 State Rep. J.D. Sheffi eld, District
24 State Sen. Dawn Buckingham
and District 25 State Sen. Donna
Campbell requesting that all TDCJ
employees and inmates, 100 percent
across the board, for the six units in
Gatesville, be tested for COVID-19
so that the county can determine
how extensive the outbreak might
be within the TDCJ system.
Miller also noted that he has had
some conversations with Sheffi eld,
who has been in contact with Collier
at TDCJ, and, as of last week,
there is a new test being introduced
that will be funded by the federal
and state governments and will not
come out of the TDCJ budget.
That test will be implemented
within the next week to 10 days and
it is allocated to test 100 percent
of all TDCJ employees across the
state, Miller said.
The testing lab will be set up
in Texas to provide the most rapid
turnaround time for results.
“They have not committed to
testing all of the inmates, so we
will still continue to push for testing
the inmates,” the county judge
said, noting that the inmates are
an indirect threat, but still a threat.
“Understanding what the threat
is and the density of the infection
helps us shape what our approach is
and what we do as a county government.”
Part of the county’s latest approach,
in conjunction with the
cities of Gatesville and Copperas
Cove, is a newly released ad campaign
to encourage everyone in the
community to wear a face covering.
“This is not a mandate,” Miller
said. “It has not been ordered, but it
has been recommended from every
level of government, every health
agency in the governmental system,
that people wear a mask in public
and wear a mask in situations where
you cannot maintain social distancing
of at least six feet or more.”
Community members are not
asked to wear an N95 or surgical
mask; a simple face covering such
as a homemade fabric mask or bandana
will suffi ce.
“The whole intent there is not
that it’s going to protect you from
getting the virus,” Miller said.
“What it does is it helps prevent,
if you have the virus, it helps you
prevent from spreading it to others.
The mask is your way of saying, ‘I
care.”
The ad campaign will continue
for the next several weeks and will
include advertising and stickers
to encourage the wearing of face
coverings.
“Everyone should wear a mask,
not for themselves, but for others,”
Miller said.
Graduation
