Coronavirus: Laredo Implements Mandatory 2 Week Lockdown

LAREDO, TX – On Tuesday, the Laredo City Council unanimously voted to approve a two-week mandatory lockdown of the city during an emergency meeting. The decision to implement the lockdown came after an elementary school teacher tested positive for the virus in the city.

According to the Laredo Morning Times, the community will have to quarantine at home. The only exceptions are leaving for work or to buy necessities like groceries, medicine, take-out food from restaurants or home improvement materials.

The decision to lock down the city was a contentious affair and it further empathized the impact the Coronavirus is having in communities all across the county.

The emergency meeting was live-streamed on Facebook and the council members, the mayor, and a select number of city staff were split up in three rooms. The group communicated via teleconference only. 

Earlier in the day, Mayor Pete Saenz signed an order that prohibited gatherings of 50 people or more. Laredo has a popualtion of nearly 1.5 million people.

Even though the vote was unanimous by council members, the Health Department Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez did not support a mandatory lockdown.

Councilman Marte Martinez, who is a medical doctor was concerned that the infected teacher may not be “patient zero” and that the virus would have the opportunity to further spread in the community.

“There’s no overreacting right now, there’s only underreacting...The fact that we don’t know when this patient became infected or who infected this patient and then how long they themselves were contagious puts us in a completely different algorithm where we’re no longer able to plan ahead. We have to react,” said Martinez.

The council agreed on a unanimous vote after they amended the lockdown to allow people to go to work.

Furthermore, the city voted to not disconnect the utilities of any citizen during this time and it will prohibit landlords from evicting tenants, residential or commercial.

The lockdown will go into effect on Thursday, March 19 at 12:01 a.m.