Updated 4:21 p.m. March 31, 2020
Ten additional people were confirmed positive with COVID-19 in Hidalgo County, upping the total to 38 cases.
A total of 393 people have been tested for the virus in the county, with 267 tests coming back negative and 88 still pending results.
According to a Hidalgo County news release Monday afternoon, Judge Richard F. Cortez said staying home is the safest thing everyone can do to avoid contracting the virus, and said every medical expert has said the same thing.
“I’m so proud of all of you who have adhered to this order,” Cortez said. “I know a lot of hardship on businesses and individuals have resulted from this order.”
Original story:
Over the weekend, Hidalgo County confirmed 17 new positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 28.
According to the Hidalgo County website, a total of 386 individuals have been tested, with 28 positive, 248 negative and 110 pending results.
Ten of the 17 new cases are McAllen residents. The other positive cases are residents from Weslaco, Pharr, Mission, Mercedes and San Juan.
Twenty-six of the individuals have been ordered to isolate themselves in their homes, with the other two being hospitalized at undisclosed locations, according to a Hidalgo County news release last Saturday.
Of the 17 new cases, a 15-year-old male from San Juan is the youngest to test positive for COVID-19, while a 62-year-old male from McAllen is the oldest.
“The bad news is that more people are showing infection as more people are getting tested,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said in the news release. “The good news is that there are only two people in Hidalgo County who have tested positive and are requiring hospital treatment. The rest are recuperating at their homes and are expected to recover.”
Today, Hidalgo County posted a message from Cortez on its YouTube account, acknowledging the first week of shelter-at-home and asking residents to keep following these rules to “lower” the curve of infection.
“Put peer pressure on your friends that are violating these rules,” he said. “The surge is about to come and the more people that are out there right now, the higher the probability that we’re going to have [more positive cases]. We have a limited amount of beds … [and] ventilators. I don’t want to have to make a decision if an 80 year old gets a ventilator over a 25 year old.”
Cortez finished the message asking Hidalgo County residents to stay home to avoid these kinds of situations from happening in the future.
