Metro Health Medical Director Dr. Junda Woo warned during Tuesday night’s city and county COVID-19 briefing that if vaccination rates and mask use don’t improve, residents could be in for a long haul in dealing with the virus.
“Do we want to be in this for another few months? Or do we want to be in the pandemic for another year or more?” she said. “A lot of it depends on how much we get vaccinated now and take these measures, like wearing a mask. If we get to where another variant goes free the way the delta variant has with the number of unvaccinated people we have, this is not going to end anytime soon.”
During the briefing, local officials also repeated warnings that children are more susceptible to the delta variant, noting that 24 of the 209 people admitted to local hospitals over the past 24 hours to treat COVID-19 infections were children.
As of Tuesday, the seven-day moving average for Bexar County cases was 1,628. The city also reported 45 additional deaths during the past seven days.
The briefing occurred shortly after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has issued orders banning mask and vaccination mandates, issued a news release revealing he’d tested positive for the coronavirus.
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This article appears in Aug 11-24, 2021.
