SAN ANTONIO — Taking to Facebook to deliver the news of his community's first COVID-19-related death, Uvalde's mayor is pointing to San Antonio as the reason why that city, located about 90 miles west of the Alamo City, is seeing its own coronavirus situation worsen.
"I'm just going to be point-blank on this: Most of the increase in cases that we're seeing in Uvalde can be traced back to younger people going to San Antonio, going out and visiting friends that may be sick or whatever," Mayor Don McLaughlin said on a Facebook Live Wednesday morning. "But they're going into San Anton, they're coming back to Uvalde and they're infecting their families."
McLaughlin said he expects the total number of cases in Uvalde to rise to 44 on Wednesday, 33 of which have recovered. According to Texas Health and Human Services, Uvalde County had tested 895 residents through Monday.
"You need to use good common sense," McLaughlin said in his address. "You need to wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands."
Unlike Bexar County, leaders in Uvalde aren't requiring that residents wear masks or mandating that businesses require them, nor is Uvalde County at large, but McLaughlin said residents "should definitely wear one" in crowded public places.
The mayor went on to remind Uvalde residents about local protocols to contain the spread of COVID-19 – the recent surge of which led to Texas reporting by far its largest daily new case count on Tuesday, with nearly 5,500 diagnoses – including self-isolating if they begin to show symptoms of the virus.
McLaughlin identified the local coronavirus victim only as a man, but didn't give his age. As of Tuesday, 2,220 Texans have died from virus-related complications.