There were more people with novel coronavirus in San Antonio hospitals Tuesday, but Metro Health officials said the system is still in good condition.
“We are reporting more cases,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg at the first city-county briefing in five days. “Our data does, however, show a trend … that maintains a relative level of stability.”
Nirenberg said there were 107 people with the virus in hospitals, up from 96 Monday and 90 on Sunday, with 43 in intensive care and 24 on ventilators to help them breathe.
But Metro Health data show 31 percent of staffed hospital beds and 77 of ventilators remained available citywide, figures which show the system isn’t seriously stressed.
Nirenberg also reported there were 180 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pushing the total in Bexar County since the first case was reported March 13 to 3,513.
Two cases were reported from congregate settings, and one inmate at the Bexar County Jail tested positive. He said 160 cases are under investigation.
Two new deaths were reported Tuesday, the first deaths reported since June 3. Both people who died were Hispanic men in their 50s who were patients at Baptist hospitals. The death toll rose to 80.
“We knew we were going to get more cases when the economy opened back up,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “We just need to be careful like we’ve said time and time again with the mask and about social distancing.”
Nirenberg said the e in cases was due to a backlog in testing at local and statewide labs, as well as the increase in business and social activity as the city has gradually reopened.
“We’ll continue to see an increase in cases as those activities increase, but we’re monitoring this progress indicator very closely,” Nirenberg said.
The city can conduct 3,960 tests per day, well above the city’s target of 3,000 daily tests.
Nirenberg said the city is looking to hire and train 175 contact tracers by September, a goal the city is “well on our way to meeting,” he said. So far, the city has brought on 110 contact tracers.
Messaging around how the virus is transmitted became muddled this week after officials with the World Health Organization suggested that transmission from asymptomatic carriers of the virus to other people was rare. A day later, the WHO walked the statement back, saying much is still unknown.
“We haven’t changed our position on asymptotic (transmission), which is that we don’t what the prevalence is in our community,” Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick said. “We’ll continue to proceed with that direction and those assumptions regardless of the WHO statement.”