Mason County Judge Jerry Bearden announced on Thursday, April 30, 2020, that a spike in COVID-19 cases had occurred in Mason, resulting, in part, from an in-person council meeting. 18 people tested positive for the virus, believed to stem from the face-to-face session, despite social distancing efforts. Further results are pending.
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Mason County COVID-19 Spike Believed to Stem From Council Meeting
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“We now have an open-wide pandemic here in the county,” Judge Bearden told kxan.com. Mason County is located approximately 115 miles northwest of the city of Austin, in the Texas Hill Country. It has a population of 4.2K, and up until two weeks ago, the town of Mason was continuing to hold in-person council meetings while maintaining social distancing spaces of six feet. However, the spike in cases is still believed to stem from there.
Photo: envato elements
The judge said that up until this spike, Mason County had been making every effort to practice the executive measures set out by Governor Abbott in shuttering county offices and businesses while still maintaining effective staff schedules. Now that there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases, the county is closing their facilities for at least a week. Mason does not have a hospital, and residents only have access to a small clinic attended by one doctor and a small staff of nurses. Since the announcement of the outbreak, they have been steadily testing residents, and although they haven’t had ample resources, they’ve done the best they can until additional testing capacity arrives today (Monday, May 4, 2020).
Photo: envato elements
Judge Bearden noted that testing for rural Texas was expected to be rolled out by the National Guard, which were scheduled to be at the Mason community center starting today. By Thursday, April 30, 2020, 100 results of COVID-19 testing were still pending from 143 people tested in the county. 24 test results came back negative.
