Milam County has recorded its second death attributed to COVID-19.
County Judge Steve Young said an elderly county resident died Friday in a Temple hospital.
“His death was from pneumonia which was attributed to the COVID-19 virus,” Young said.
Young said the virus is affecting all ages. “As of Wednesday morning we have a three-year-old female Milam resident in a Temple hospital with COVID-19,” he said.
Milam’s first death was a woman on April 20.
INCREASES—It was another week of climbing numbers in all categories on the COVID-19 front as cumulative cases went to 191 and active cases to 55.
Those are dramatic increases over last Wednesday’s 133 cumulative and 40 active.
The 58 cases logged in one week is also a new record, by far. Young said more are anticipated daily.
But Young, speaking on Monday to county commissioners, found at least a glimmer of optimism.
“We’ve had the new wear a mask order in place for two weeks now and we have struggled with it,” Young said. “But on Saturday I got out and I did not see one person who was not wearing a mask.”
“Thanks to the residents of Milam County for wearing masks,” Young said. “That’s the only way we are going to make an impact on fi g h t i n g t h i s .”
IMPACT—The COVID-19 virus continued to impact many facets of Milam life, including county offices and services.
The Milam County Clerk’s Office cut back services at 12-noon Thursday as four members of the staff went out with the virus, according to Young.
“We were never actually totally closed,” County Clerk Jodi Morgan told commissioners Monday. “Staffers were there working, doing what we could in a number of areas.”
Early voting at the site continued and a drop-box was checked regularly by employees.
She said the office is expected to reopen to the public on Monday.
Young said other county departments impacted by the virus have been the sheriff, county auditor and even the commissioners court.
TESTS—Results from three days of testing, done last week in Rockdale, Milano and Cameron, accounted for some of the increased numbers during the week.
Young said 393 persons were tested during the three days with 35 testing positive for the virus.
He said 242 of those persons were Milam County residents and 24 tested positive.
During the week, Robert Kirkpatrick, County Health Department Director, released “positivity rate” statistics, showing the percentage of persons who tested positive compared to those who have tested in the county.
Statistics go back to the first cases, reported the week of April 25-May 1 and have fluctuated greatly.
The stats were released by weeks. May 23-29 recorded a zero-percent positivity rate (nobody who tested was positive) to 48.57 percent June 27-July 3.
In a Facebook address Friday, Kirkpatrick said Milam’s positivity rate was 18 percent.
That’s roughly double the Texas positivity test rate. As of Sunday that rate was 9.4 percent, representing 258,658 cases out of 2,757,858 persons tested.
ADDRESS—On Friday, Young, Kirkpatrick and County Emergency Management Director Bryan Burns shared a Facebook address on the state of the virus.
Burns said his department had distributed more than 60,000 masks and visited about 100 businesses.
He said anyone who wants a mask is invited to contact the main number at the Milam County Courthouse, 254-697-7000.
‘EVERY CORNER’— Young, reporting to commissioners on Monday, urged Milam residents to continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.
“This is in every corner of the county,” he said. “This is the best thing we can do to fight it.”
MORE TESTING— Young said the next round of COVID-19 testing—this one from a mobile unit— is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 1. “We don’t yet know locations but will get that information out to the public just as soon a we get it,” he said.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.