CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Wednesday afternoon, Corpus Christi city leaders and the City-County Health Department gave an update on slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Nueces County.
As the number of confirmed cases in the county climbed to 14, city leaders are now making some changes.
Peter Zanoni, the city manager, said one of the changes is not allowing camping at Labonte Park and West Guth Park on Easter weekend. The decision follows city council’s order, that was extended Tuesday, to minimize group sizes.
“If we follow the CDC and the federal and state guidelines, it’s no more than 10 (people that should gather),“ said Zanoni. “Our goal and our effort is to save lives in our community, while at the same time, providing vital services and resources to the public.”
The order is in effect until April 17th.
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Annette Rodriguez, the City-County Health Department director also said more than 45 people monitor phones at the department to answer COVID-19 related questions.
“It looks very busy, the phones are just continuing to ring," said Rodriguez. "We ask people to be patient with us. We’re taking over 8,000 calls and we return many more.”
Rodriguez also said if someone qualifies for testing, and tests positive for the virus, staff do “contact tracing.” That’s when they reach out to the patient, and see where they’ve been and who they’ve been in contact with for the past 14 days.
“(We’re) looking at credit card statements to jog their memory, and some of those times, you'll see if they've gone to a local mall or they've gone to a grocery store,” said Rodriguez.
There will also be more drive-thru COVID-19 testing soon. The city also anounced the county used a local lab for the first time, to test for the virus. It’s one of ten labs like it in the state.