Gov. Greg Abbott's Office Approves Of Curfew In El Paso County To Help Stop Coronavirus Spread
EL PASO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - The top elected official for El Paso County, Texas, plans to put in place a new curfew to help combat the spread of the coronavirus, which is overrunning the border area's hospitals and funeral homes.
County Judge Ricardo Samaniego was set to announce the curfew and provide details about its implementation during a news conference Tuesday evening.
Samaniego has told reporters Gov. Greg Abbott's office has approved the curfew.
In a letter sent last week to Gov. Abbott, Samaniego wrote the curfew would be limited in nature and would run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Samaniego wrote the curfew would be designed to stem recreational and international traffic after 10 p.m. and would not interfere with people seeking to access essential or nonessential services.
The county judge and state officials have been at odds over Samaniego's efforts to implement rules to slow the virus' spread in the border city of El Paso.
Earlier this month, an appeals court overturned an El Paso County order that would have closed nonessential businesses, including gyms and salons.
El Paso County, which has more than 839,000 residents, on Tuesday reported 36,640 active COVID-19 cases, more than any other county in the state.
Last week, the Texas National Guard sent a 36-member team to El Paso to assist morgues with the number of dead due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Jail inmates are being paid to move bodies and county leaders have offered $27 an hour for morgue workers.
El Paso County is not an outlier in Texas as the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths have spiked in recent weeks across the state.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Texas has risen from 7,680 new cases per day on Nov. 9 to 10,441 on Monday, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths increased from 96 to 144 per day during the same time period. Texas' 21,049 COVID-19 related deaths to date are the second highest in the U.S.
Dolores Espinoza, 38, a patient care assistant at Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso told The Associated Press last week that a man in his 40s being treated at her hospital for COVID-19 had to celebrate his birthday alone. His wife had recently died from the virus.
Espinoza said the cafeteria sent the man a cake and the nurses wished him a happy birthday as he cried and told them, "This is the saddest day because I have nobody."
Espinoza said there is little to no space left in her hospital, most rooms already have two beds and every floor but hers is devoted to COVID-19 patient care.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbott announced the state has established a wing at an alternate care site set up in El Paso's convention center to administer a new antibody drug similar to a treatment President Donald Trump received after contracting the virus last month.
The drug, called bamlanivimab, may help clear the coronavirus sooner and possibly cut hospitalizations in people with mild to moderate COVID-19.
The infusion wing, which began accepting patients Tuesday, has been provided with 1,000 doses of the drug.
"The establishment of the bamlanivimab infusion wing ... is crucial to keeping hospitalizations down and protecting at-risk Texans in the community," Abbott said.
State health officials have said only an extremely limited supply of the drug is coming to Texas.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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