San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is expecting a surge in COVID-19 cases as the Labor Day weekend approaches. He is encouraging people to use any of the available tools to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
During the city’s COVID-19 briefing Thursday , assistant director for San Antonio Metropolitan Health Doctor Anita Kurian said that spikes in COVID19 cases after a long holiday weekends have been observed in the past.
“So this is not going to be any different,” Kurian said. “That is why we are amplifying our message about staying cautious during the Labor Day weekend.”
Recently, officials reported 1,1168 new COVID19 cases an a seven-day average of 1,278 cases. There are also additional 23 deaths in San Antonio.
On Thursday night, there were 1, 268 patients in San Antonio hospitals, with 195 new patients just in the last 24 hours. Of these new patients, 31 were children. Mayor Nirenberg said that out of 361 COVID 19 patients that are confined in the ICU, 234 patients were on ventilators.
Nirenberg is not implementing any kid of curfew restrictions to slow the spread of the virus in the weekend.
“The governor has done everything he can to make sure we never do anything to protect any people,” said County Judge Nelson Wolff.
Governor Gregg Abbott is seen to have a victory in the Texas Supreme Court, as he shuts down Bexar County’s mask mandate. He is also imposing a ban on vaccination mandates.
Nirenberg also thinks that there isn’t a need for a more restrictive mandate in the city since he believes that the tools – mask and the vaccine – are enough to fight the virus.
There are around 1.1 million fully vaccinated people in San Antonio and about 1.4 million who received the first short. Children under 12 are not yet permitted to take the shot, and this account for 20% of San Antonio’s population, according to Nirenberg.
