Texas Governor Greg Abbott was in Amarillo on Wednesday afternoon and while The Pampa News was not permitted in the press conference room at City Hall due to social-distancing-induced limited capacity, the meeting was live-streamed on the City of Amarillo’s website for the media.
Amarillo has been one of the hot-spots for COVID-19 as at one time they saw a daily active case increase that mirrored some of the areas in the United States most affected by the novel coronavirus.
But in recent weeks, Amarillo has had several days where they have seen more recoveries than new active cases.
“Amarillo is an example of how Texas is responding to COVID-19 at this particular stage of COVID-19’s life in Texas,” Abbott said. “The first month or two of challenges of COVID-19 in March and April. It required us to get a feel for how the virus was going to spread through Texas and amass all of the PPE (personal protection equipment), medical equipment and testing needed in order for the State of Texas to assist local communities in fighting COVID-19.”
Abbott said Texas is starting to open economically while maintaining the lives of Texans. As part of that strategy, Texas has formed surge response teams to identify hot-spots in Texas where there is an increase in Texans testing positive.
Those hot-spots have been narrowed down to three categories: jails/prisons, meat-packing plants and nursing homes.
“Amarillo has gone through the challenge of facing all three of those hot-spots overlapping,” Abbott said. “They have several nursing homes, a jail and the consequences of a meat-packing plant, which led to the increase of people testing positive in this region.”
Abbott said that led to the State of Texas making sure not only Amarillo had what they needed, but the surrounding communities including Moore and Deaf Smith Counties.
This meant the federal government sending a team from the Center for Disease Control, more testing supplies, medical supplies and their strike team.
Abbott shared a graph highlighting the trends in Amarillo. On May 13, there was 182 new active cases with no fatalities. By May 16, there was 734 new active cases with seven total fatalities.
The trend has steadily slowed down with two days with no new active cases and several with 12 or less. The total deaths in Amarillo sits at 12.
“This is exactly what we have seen when we have deployed these surge teams to other hot-spot areas like this,” Abbott said. “We have seen an early spike in the number of people testing positive then you see a slow decline. This demonstrates that the hot-spot area has been contained.”
Abbott said one positive trend in Amarillo’s case is while there was an unfortunate day with five fatalities, the fatality rate has been low and the hospitalizations hasn’t seen an increase.
“They stayed relatively flat from May 17 to May 23,” Abbott said. “If you look at the key metrics at what we look at on a state-wide basis, to see how a particular region responding and how they are challenged, you see the reason why there was a need to have a surge response team to assist this region in responding to the challenge.
“But you also see positive results that lead to the ability to say Amarillo has turned the corner on it’s pathway to a positive, effective resolution to this particular hot-spot.”
Abbott said it allows Amarillo and its region to join in the process of re-opening the Texas economy.
Abbott mentioned that Texas has continued to see positive trends at the state-level in order to open up.
“We have a two-day ongoing average of testing where we continue to test 20,000 people/day across the state of Texas,” Abbott said. “The positivity rate, which is a rate we look to as one of our yard-sticks to see how well Texas is responding to the spread of the coronavirus, remains low. The seven-day positivity rate is 5.2 percent. In the middle part of April, it was 13 percent.”
As the positivity rate remains at five percent, Abbott said, through the White House strike force, it is acceptable to show the State has adequately contained COVID-19.
Texas also had three straight days of the lowest amount of deaths since the end of March.
“That (fatality rate) also shows Texas has taken a positive turn in our battle against COVID-19,” Abbott said. “Similarly our hospitalization rate, going back two days ago, we had our lowest hospitalization numbers in the state of Texas since the start of April.
“Percentage-wise, when you consider the number of people who test positive for COVID-19 and the hospitalization because of it, the hospitalization rate is among the lowest since the beginning of COVID-19 spreading in Texas.”
Abbott did offer one warning. As JBS Swift employees continue to be tested in Moore County, there will likely be one more spike in the number of tests and positive cases. The spike may have occurred by the end of this week.
But after that spike, Abbott said there should be an ongoing downward trend of those testing positive in this region.
Abbott passed the conference to Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson, who lauded the governor and his staff for their leadership.
Nelson mentioned the Amarillo area needs better internet coverage across the entire Texas Panhandle so tele-medicine and distance education (should it continue into next school year) can be improved.
Nelson also wants to see economic growth in the Texas Panhandle.
While she is excited to see Amarillo moving out of the peak of the COVID-19 situation, she recognizes the challenges that lie ahead.
During the media questioning period, Abbott was asked what plans he has in place in the event there is a second wave.
“We are prepared and preparing for second and third-level expansions of COVID-19,” Abbott said. “Second-level would be as we go about this re-opening up process and realize there could be spikes as we have seen in Amarillo,” Abbott said. “We are prepared to send these surge response teams to put down any kind of flare-up using the mindset of what we have seen in Amarillo.
“There is talk of a second flare-up or third flare-up in the fall or winter time when the seasonal flu occurs and COVID-19 could occur if we don’t have the medicines to take care of it.”
Abbott said there is a robust supply team aggregating PPE across the State of Texas. Abbott added there are several Texas-based manufacturers of the product that should allow for Texas to stay ahead of the demand as time moves on.
Abbott said the key to responding to COVID-19 is to make sure the healthcare system in Texas isn’t overrun by the coronavirus as it was in New York City.
When asked about the mandatory testing in nursing homes and whether he expects to see a spike from their results, Abbott said he expects to see an increase in that environment, but will lean on their experience at other hot-spots to contain it.
“But, because we have been through this exercise in other regions in the state of Texas and just like in the meat-packing facilities, in the nursing home we expect to see an immediate increase and then an ensuing decline in the positivity rate,” Abbott said.
Abbott added there are other “group-home” type settings where they are receiving similar styles of testing.
Abbott was asked about how the State of Texas is addressing COVID-19 among the Hispanic communities to which he answered they are providing resources to all vulnerable populations.
“The Hispanic community has had an over-representation in those who test positive and face the most serious consequences from COVID-19,” Abbott said. “As a result, we are providing resources targeting certain areas of Hispanic communities. One of those is to increase testing and testing sites in those locations that may be more predominantly Hispanic so we can identify what may be the reason why some are testing more positive.”
These reasons could vary from residence to workplace.
As far as the week delay in re-opening Amarillo? Abbott said it went according to plan.
“It does look like a week was enough even including the fact that we do anticipate a spike in those testing positive later this week (as a result of JBS Swift testing),” Abbott said. “Amarillo has turned the corner and they are prepared to go to the increase in opening up later this week.”
For more information on Abbott’s plan to re-opening Texas, visit https://gov.texas.gov/news.
