Health officials reminding North Texans to continue COVID-19 precautions over the Labor Day weekend
DALLAS - Ahead of Labor Day weekend, Dallas County's health director gave an update to Dallas City Council members about the spread of the coronavirus.
He said the trends right now look good, but there is concern people may let down their guard over the holiday weekend.
It’s a message we heard before the last summer holiday, and now, once again.
“We cannot have another Memorial Day over the Labor Day weekend,” Dallas County’s top public health official, Dr. Philip Huang, said.
Texas experienced a more than 60% spike in hospitalizations in the weeks following Memorial Day, resulting in thousands more deaths caused by COVID.
Prior to Memorial Day, daily new cases in North Texas were in the triple digits, but had mostly remained stable.
The state allowed restaurants to increase capacity, and allowed bars to reopen.
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“A lot of restrictions were lifted, you had summer that was open with Memorial Day. It just created this perfect storm for increased transmission. I’m hoping we won’t see that again,” Dr. Diana Cervantes explained.
Dr. Cervantes, an epidemiologist who led the state’s Ebola response, worries it’s Deja vu, as we are in a similar situation now.
Just this week, Dallas County downgraded its COVID-19 alert level from red to orange.
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The Metroplex is seeing some of the lowest levels in new cases since May.
Masks and social distancing have proven to be working.
But now, students are back in school, more workers are back in the office, and we’re heading into a holiday weekend.
“If the numbers start going back up, if we start seeing what we saw in July, then absolutely we would recommend going back up to red,” Dr. Huang said.
He added that local authorities no longer have the power to reinstate a shutdown, but one could be needed if we experience a spike similar to the one that happened this summer.
Dr. Cervantes said that we all need to be thinking ahead about what we want November to be like while planning for things to do over Labor Day weekend.
“Just because the levels of the virus are lower, that doesn’t mean let our guard down. If anything, this is a time we really need to be vigilant to make sure we don’t get in the same situation we were in back in July, or worse,” she said.