85 babies below age one in Texas county test positive for coronavirus

By RACHEL WOLF

Published: JULY 18, 2020 22:46

Baby crying [Illustrative] (photo credit: PIXABAY) — Baby crying [Illustrative]

(photo credit: PIXABAY)

Additionally, local Texas news outlet KWTX reported that one infant in the county died of the virus on July 9.

Some 85 infants under the age of one tested positive for coronavirus in Nueces County, Texas, CNN reported on Saturday.

Additionally, local Texas news outlet KWTX reported that one infant in the county died of the virus on July 9. “The patient was male under 6 months of age. Our deepest condolences go out to his parents and family,” the district said in a brief press release, according to local media.

"We currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for COVID-19," Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, told CNN. "These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us stop the spread of this disease."

Peter Zanoni, the Corpus Christi city manager, told CNN that the county has “the fastest growth in new cases on the seven-day average than any other metropolitan county in the state.You can see the trend line is relatively flat until July, and this is where we have had that huge spike in cases, and this is why it's turned into a major problem for Nueces County.”

Corpus Christi, which is located in Nueces County, has approximately 8,100 cases and 82 deaths, CNN reported, citing local officials.

“Texas is now not where it should be relating to fighting Covid-19. Therefore, your office should take immediate action to rewind the efforts to reopen the state quickly; which came about by ignoring CDC guidelines," state representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Joaquin Castro said in a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbot. "We need to provide local authority to local counties and cities to do what is in the best interest of their communities."

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, as of Friday, the state has had a total of 307,572 reported cases, including 10,256 new ones, 3,735 deaths, 174 of which were new, and 162,191 recovered COVID-19 patients.

#COVID19TX update: https://t.co/bGhz1bN7zR #Texas reports 174 new fatalities today, 543 new fatalities in the last 5 days. More Texans are dying from #COVID19. This weekend, please stay home when you can and wear a mask in public. Together for a #HealthyTexas. pic.twitter.com/z3PEBe4Vpv
— Texas DSHS (@TexasDSHS) July 17, 2020

On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the country had a total of 3,555,877 coronavirus cases, 72,045 of which were new, and 137,864 deaths, 926 of which were new.