South Brazoria News

BRYAN – Brazos County officials have made efforts to keep the community safe during the COVID-19 outbreak as stay-at-home orders alter the everyday lives of Americans.

"As you could imagine, we're affected like every other person on the face of this earth right now with COVID-19 and the worries that come with the possibility of being infected," Sheriff Chris Kirk said in a news release. "We are the tip of the sphere and we have a responsibility to maintain our role in the criminal justice system and maintain our role in our community for protection and safety."

With 44 confirmed cases throughout Brazos County, the urgency has reached a new level, said Bryan interim Assistant Police Chief Dean Swartzlander.

"We’ve tried to do our best to social distance within the department to try and keep our men and women in the field versus coming back to the department where we’re in a close knit environment in case one of us potentially gets exposed to the virus," he said. "The big thing for us is communication, just like everybody else, everyone is starving for the next piece of information. We're trying to do the best we can to keep our officers informed."

Additionally, Gov. Greg Abbott last week reissued his statewide regulations in wake of the pandemic. Under the his restrictions, bars, clubs and restaurants are closed to in-house dining and drinking, but can offer drive-thru, pick-up or delivery services. 

The state’s official count is 2,877 infected and 33 dead as of March 30. The Texas Hospital Association wrote Abbott in response to those numbers and statistical forecasting, calling on communities to shelter in place.

“Given the projections and gravity of the situation, Texas hospitals want to share our firm position in support of strong shelter-in-place provisions to protect our health care workers and the community,” Ted Shaw, the president and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association, wrote.

Counties throughout the state have issued their own shelter-in-place requirements over the past weeks and those orders are expected to expand throughout the upcoming days.

As of Monday evening the nationwide numbers have grown to over 161,357 confirmed cases and 2,971 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States now has the most confirmed cases in the world.