By Matt Dotray Lubbock Avalanche-Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
Ask public health director Katherine Wells about a possible COVID-19 hotspot and she’ll say it definitely could have been, or it could be.
The issue the health department is running into now with its contact tracing is that they can’t pinpoint specific outbreaks because people are going too many places. When Wells’ team interviews individuals who’ve tested positive for COVID-19, it’s impossible to say where they contracted the virus when in the last week they went to bars, restaurants, private gatherings with friends or family, retail stores, schools and so on.
Wells is seeing this across the board. She said it’s best to just assume COVID is everywhere.
Wells emphasized as strongly as she could that it’s important people wear face masks, especially now. If people continue going out in public at the rate they are, Wells said the only way to slow the spread is by wearing a mask, and to socially distance.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal spoke to Wells on Monday because of the rush of emails we’ve received from people wanting to know where outbreaks are occurring — people are inquiring about the South Plains Fair, Cook’s Garage, high school football teams, bars and clubs, restaurants, weddings and the like.
Wells said yeah, there have been positive cases associated with all these places. But Wells said she can’t say for certain these are all main sources of significant spread because they’re usually just one of the many places people have gone too.
“I have no way to tell where they got it from, and that’s why I can’t tie things back to these big events,” Wells said over the phone on Monday. “We’re pretty sure things spread at the fair and at other big events, but there’s no way to tell if they got it from there, from their sister that was at dinner with them at their parents house, or at any of those restaurants. People are going so many places.”
The health department used to be able to issue orders shutting businesses down for mandatory cleaning if they’re the source of significant spread. Just the threat of a health order usually caused businesses to take more serious precautions against COVID.
Wells said the health department can’t do that right now because they can’t say for certain where the hotspots are.
The Lubbock Health Department reported eight more deaths linked to COVID-19 - the highest one-day total in the city since the start of the pandemic.
The city reported 208 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, which marked Lubbock’s 13th day in a row with at least 150 new cases.
Austin hasn’t reported 150 new cases in a day all month. San Antonio hasn’t reported more than 150 new cases in a day six times in the past two weeks. Lubbock is reporting more cases than the state’s largest cities.
Lubbock is now reporting 165 total deaths due to COVID-19.
So far in October, Lubbock is reporting an average of 194 new positive cases a day.
Lubbock’s hospitalizations have spiked significantly this month, and the health department now reports 212 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Lubbock. Sixty-four of those patients are in ICU.
Tuesday was the second day in a row where more than 15% of the hospitalizations in Lubbock’s trauma service areas were due to COVID-19.
Tuesday was the second day in a row where Lubbock surpassed the governor’s 15% threshold. If this continues for seven consecutive days, mandatory economic rollback requirements would take place. Members of Lubbock’s economic recovery task force hosted a news conference on Tuesday to explain what happens if Lubbock’s hospitalization rate doesn’t decrease.
If the rate of hospitalizations in the trauma service area due to COVID-19 remains above 15% through Sunday, Councilman Steve Massengale, co-chair of the local task force, said capacity at restaurants would be forced to reduce from 75% back to 50%. He said bars would re-close and hospitals would be forced to stop elective procedures.
Massengale described this as a rollback, not a shutdown.
Massengale said these restrictions would remain in place until Lubbock gets below that 15% benchmark for seven consecutive days.
On Tuesday, the hospitalization rate due to COVID-19 was 16.64%.
Massengale, along with Chris Berry, president of the Lubbock Restaurant Association, and Eddie McBride, president of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, strongly encouraged citizens to wear masks and social distance. Berry said restaurants are just trying to stay afloat, and another setback would really hurt.
“Everybody needs to do their part — socially distance and wear your mask,” Berry said. “We’ll get back to where we need to be.”
Wells also said Lubbock citizens really need to wear masks right now.
Wells offered this anecdote: several employees at the health department contracted the virus outside of work, she said. There hasn’t been any spread at the health department because Wells said everyone is required to wear a mask. Wells said they’ve had staff meetings in a room for more than half-an-hour with people who’ve later tested positive, and still no spread because people wear masks.
Wells said masks work.