As of March 29, the Brazos County Health Department has recorded 36 positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the county.
“One of the questions about this entire COVID-19 experience is how many folks have actually been infected,” Brazos County alternate Health Authority Dr. Seth Sullivan told The Eagle. “It’s known that there are folks who have been infected with COVID-19 who either didn’t present for clinical care or didn’t get tested — or both. As those capacities increase and citizens or patients do present for testing, these numbers, we do expect, will go up. Of course, we’re doing our very best from a public health perspective to keep these down."
Several Texas universities extended their spring breaks so that professors could prepare to transition to online or remote classes. Some universities are having students shelter in place in their dormitories.
The Brazos County Health District is not testing for COVID-19 at this time. The public is encouraged to practice general preventive actions, including washing hands often with soap and water, avoiding touching the face, avoiding close contact with those who are ill, stay home when sick, cover your cough or sneeze, clean and disinfect commonly touched items.
Minimizing exposure is important for people over 65 or those who have underlying health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer. If you are a member of the high-risk population and develop symptoms of fever and a cough, contact your doctor. If you are in generally good health and have mild symptoms, stay home and take care of yourself as you would if you had a cold or the flu.
To date, there is no vaccine and no specific anti-viral medication to prevent or treat COVID-19.
The next Brazos County Health Department press conference is scheduled for March 30 at 4:30 p.m. It will be held on Facebook Live (/brazoscountyhealthdistrict) and live-streamed on KTBX.
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