July 15, 2020

New cases for Tuesday:

Harrison 19

Gregg 36

Smith 58

WEAR YOUR MASKS!

	ACTIVE COVID CASES
2020-07-10	2020-07-11	2020-07-12	2020-07-13	TSA AREA
46	48	47	46	Amarillo
115	128	125	130	Lubbock
32	35	35	35	Wichita Falls
20	22	34	38	Abilene
1872	1825	1895	1867	Dallas/Ft. Worth
66	74	69	70	Paris
162	159	220	187	Longview/Tyler
64	65	63	60	Lufkin
261	251	277	285	El Paso
106	114	113	113	Midland/Odessa
49	51	41	39	San Angelo
73	76	77	75	Belton/Killeen
45	54	58	65	Waco
58	58	58	54	Bryan/College Station
486	500	483	498	Austin
1439	1529	1490	1535	San Antonio
2826	2842	2863	2842	Houston
385	432	431	458	Galveston
140	136	161	153	Victoria
123	150	154	149	Laredo
341	337	360	355	Corpus Christi
1293	1197	1356	1351	Lower Rio Grande Valley
10002	10083	10410	10405	Statewide Total

Texas hospitals are running out of drugs, beds, ventilators and even staff
Almost a MUST-READ, surely is a SHOULD-READ! Wonderful article from the Texas Tribune.     “…Meanwhile, short-staffed West Texas hospitals have been forced to turn away patients from rural areas, where small regional hospitals lack the resources to treat the sickest patients.”
Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Theoretical Considerations and Available Evidence
“…Considering that most people with COVID-19 are contagious for about 1 week, a reproduction number of 2 to 3 is quite small given the large number of interactions, crowds, and personal contacts that most people have under normal circumstances within a 7-day period. 
…Similarly, the secondary attack rate for SARS-CoV-2 is low. Case series that have evaluated close contacts of patients with confirmed COVID-19 have reported that only about 5% of contacts become infected. However, even this low attack rate is not spread evenly among close contacts but varies depending on the duration and intensity of contact. The risk is highest among household members, in whom transmission rates range between 10% and 40%.2-4 Close but less sustained contact such as sharing a meal is associated with a secondary attack rate of about 7%, whereas passing interactions among people shopping is associated with a secondary attack rate of 0.6%.

All told, current understanding about SARS-CoV-2 transmission is still limited. There are no perfect experimental data proving or disproving droplet vs aerosol-based transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The balance of evidence, however, seems inconsistent with the aerosol-based transmission of SARS-CoV-2 particularly in well-ventilated spaces. What this means in practice is that keeping 6-feet apart from other people and wearing medical masks, high-quality cloth masks, or face shields when it is not possible to be 6-feet apart (for both source control and respiratory protection) should be adequate to minimize the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (in addition to frequent hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, and optimizing indoor ventilation)... It is impossible to conclude that aerosol-based transmission never occurs and it is perfectly understandable that many prefer to err on the side of caution, particularly in health care settings when caring for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. However, the balance of currently available evidence suggests that long-range aerosol-based transmission is not the dominant mode of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Antibody Responses after Classroom Exposure to Teacher with Coronavirus Disease, March 2020
Abstract:
After returning from Europe to the United States, on March 1, 2020, a symptomatic teacher received positive test results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Of the 21 students exposed to the teacher in the classroom, serologic results suggested past infection for 2. Classroom contact may result in virus transmission.

Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why.

There was a kidnapping at school yesterday. Don’t worry, though – he woke up!

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