Although less people are testing positive for COVID-19, a health expert is concerned of a possible increase of variants’ cases due to its ability to spread faster.
Regional Medical Director for the Texas Department of State Health Services Dr. Emily Prot explains that these variants are three times more transmissible compared to the normal strain and could lead to an exponential growth of cases making it easier for people who are vulnerable to get infected.
“Of course, we are monitoring the situation and observing cases but the results we do get are three to five weeks ago,” Prot said. “If we get a case today, a result today, it takes a long time to get the lab results back.”
Prot also warns that despite the mask mandate being lifted in Texas, it is still important to take proper precautions.
“The CDC director, they have been doubling on their messaging to continue, they recommend wearing the mask, I recommend wearing the mask. We need to continue to be safe,” she said.
The regional medical director said they understand people would like to get together but wants to make sure that precautions are being taken.
Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs at the UTRGV School of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer for UT Health RGV Dr. Michael Dobbs said the rates for positive COVID-19 tests have steadily gone down.
“The most recent data that I have, the positive rate was actually 2% out of 202 samples,” Dobbs said. “If I go over two weeks in mid to late March, we’ve got a rate of 4%”
Dobbs explains why these numbers are going down.
“Well, a lot of it has a lot to do with immunity,” he said. “As people are getting vaccinated, and more and more people are becoming immune from that, people are understanding better on how to protect themselves and a lot of people really do pay attention to social distancing and wear their masks.”
Vice President for Administrative Support Services Doug Arney gives the number of confirmed cases on the week of March 19-25 at UTRGV.
“We had one student who was on campus tested positive during that time frame.”
According to the UTRGV’s COVID-19 page, as of March 26 – April 1, only two other members of the university community have tested positive.To see the number of confirmed cases of students, faculty and staff or for more information, visit the UTRGV’s COVID-19 page.
