Mayor Brenda Gunter Addresses Spike in Coronavirus Cases

 

SAN ANGELO, TX – The following is a statement from San Angelo Mayor Brenda Gunter concerning the current spike in confirmed coronavirus cases:

If you’ve been watching local news or following the City of San Angelo online, then you’ve likely noticed there has been a spike in positive cases of COVID-19 in our county. This rise in cases stems from people gathering over Memorial Day weekend. Since that weekend, we have reported more than 70 positive cases. Community spread is alive in our community.

While you might see ‘X’ number of cases in a day, know that the number of people quarantined or isolated is usually much higher than the number of positive cases from that day. If someone has a party at their home and tests positive for COVID-19, then every single person who was there will also need to be quarantined. 

We’ve heard the argument that if people can go to grocery stores then they should be able to have friends over at their house. Our health officials here in the City of San Angelo have confirmed that large gatherings, even in the privacy of your own home, are not any safer than going to public places. In fact, they have proven to be less safe. Why? Because you are spending longer periods of time with people in a confined space when they come to your home. When you go to the grocery store, you are generally not there long. The less time you spend around others, the less the risk you have of contracting COVID-19.  

When the city was in a stay-at-home order in April, many citizens complained that our officials were abusing their authority and that citizens should be allowed to manage themselves. Well, now is the time for you to responsibly manage yourselves. Other citizens think we need to be stricter with our authority and place the city on another lockdown. As the governor has said, we cannot be stricter than his executive orders so we cannot issue another stay-at-home order from the City at this time. So, this means that it is time for each and every citizen of San Angelo to step up and take personal responsibility and use social discipline. While we can’t require everyone to wear masks, every person should be doing this to help their fellow citizens. If you are a business owner, then you should be taking the necessary measures to not only protect your employees but also your customers. This includes wearing masks and taking extra precautions to prevent the spread of germs. 

The spike in cases should serve as a wakeup call to everyone in Tom Green County. The time to act is now. Today. We need everyone to step up to help protect San Angelo and its surrounding areas. 

We realize it is summertime and everyone has been locked up in their homes for the last few months, but we must continue to be responsible and do our part to limit the spread of this disease. And we all know that we heard high temperatures would kill this virus. Well, if you take a look at our numbers our heat, our 100-degree temperatures have not killed this virus. Citizens, I urge you to stay home and only leave for essential services such as work, groceries and medical appointments. When you do leave, please wear a mask to avoid spreading anything. This is what our Local Health Authority has advised at this time. Wash your hands often for 20 seconds. Do not touch your face, and that’s hard. I did not realize how often I touch my face until we were told “Do not touch your face.” Use delivery services to get your meals from restaurants. Don’t take the whole family to the grocery store. Get what you need and get out. Stay six feet away from others at all times. Use your common sense. Self-isolation means no running errands, no meeting up or driving around with friends … it means staying home and staying safe! We need everyone to do this to stop the spread and put an end to COVID-19. 

I remind everybody, what we have today is a tremendous impact of community spread. Regardless of whether we say it is “contact to a known person,” it is community spread. That means from one person to another person, regardless of the fact that that person was also diagnosed as positive. It’s contact from one person to another – that’s community spread.

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Wabo73, Tue, 06/16/2020 - 10:24

No one is gona comply with another lockdown or put up with 25% capacity crap again the will be a second spike everyone knew that and if there’s a fall lockdown aka during holidays the economy will tank and it’s holidays people are gona go see family no matter what do open it all up 100% and get the population control COVID crap over with 1/3 of population is the goal I also don’t know a single person that has gotten it guess I’m lucky?

You are part of the problem, and people like you. This is the worst SARS virus to ever hit the planet, and it is in every community on the planet. Neither you nor anyone else on Earth is immortal, bullet-proof, or immune. In a moral and decent society, everyone does the best they can for each other. Evidently you were either a feral child or raised in a barn. Why don't you spend your time in the hospital in the coming weeks learning how to use punctuation.

"Evidently you were either a feral child or raised in a barn." - lizbetigan

Yes, Wabo, like myself, might be a feral barn
-child, but where are your principles now? Where is your tolerance and understanding for those of us who live like Mongol pillagers?

You're the real bigot, Liz.

sad to see the mayor falling under the spell of panic.

"Because you are spending longer periods of time with people in a confined space when they come to your home. When you go to the grocery store, you are generally not there long." - is one of the most idiotic things i've ever heard.

While true on the face of it- that logic only holds up if the small group of people you're with *are* compromised with the virus.

On the other hand, going to the grocery store, that we all know isn't being cleaned properly (come on- walmart quit wiping down the self checkouts constantly after each person used them weeks ago), standing in lines for 20-30 mins at a time, after going through the entire store and touching improperly disinfected, or not disinfected at all, merchandise, with people who aren't using proper mask procedures...somehow the mayor expects us to believe that is safer?

Vretis is a quack. he constantly says how we need to be wearing masks in his videos, while not wearing a mask at all. I guess the camera crew must be immune to the virus huh Vretis? what about those protests a few weeks ago with hundreds of people at them? they definitely were NOT social distancing then, laying down side by side with each on the steps- where was Vretis then? heck the media made a big deal out of that one officer (who will then go on to the deal with the public) shaking the protestor's hand. where was Vretis and the mayor to criticize that?

the masks are just pointless. we all know it. look at how people wear them, with their noses exposed half the time. or they constantly fiddle with them, taking them off and on and moving their position around. or they don't disinfect their hands before they touch them each time.

if the virus is in your spit and saliva and runny nose drainage, then it's all over the mask. then the idiots who fiddle with their mask touch it constantly. then they go into walmart and touch things, including the conveyor belts, the touch screens, the card readers.

I think that ^ is doing far worse than a random person sneezing in a corner of the store by themselves, or in their own home with a small group of people they at least know and can warn properly. heck even the WHO and CDC say that asymptomatic transmission is very rare at this point, and that nobody should be wearing masks *unless* they're dealing with someone who is confirmed to have the virus.

it sucks if you get the virus and get hospitalized. even worse if you end up on a ventilator and bankrupted when and if you finally get out again. i understand that, and i don't want anybody to end up that way. but fear mongering with idiotic statements like "it's safer at the grocery store than your own home" is absolutely ridiculous, and shows why we don't need to be listening to these people.

In defense of Vretis and other individuals placed in authority over handling COVID-19 for the public's sake, they have to contend with the histrionic demands and threats to their position from those panicked by the virus in a way most of us don't.

Without enough support and assurance that they will be able to maintain their positions if they don't err on the side of over-caution, they have no realistic choice but to play it safe or be blamed the moment someone loses a family member, consideration of comorbidities be damned.

I'm on my seventh life.

PS: Thank you for correcting me. I have a deep respect for fascists of grammar and orthography.

Heil!

_/|\_

If the mayor in Austin extended lock down until August 15., how come we can’t? Exercise Wisdom if you care about the citizens of San Angelo.

Thank you for your voice of reason. Did you notice that the males of the species who replied are only concerned with fatalistic predictions, dismissive expressions, and a general inability to punctuate and capitalize?

“As the governor has said, we cannot be stricter than his executive orders so we cannot issue another stay-at-home order from the City at this time.”
This is simply not true. When Gov Abbott initially set his executive orders you stated we could ONLY go MORE strict, not less. This hasn’t changed. Mayor, you CAN extend stay at home orders. Even if people don’t comply 100%- it sends a message of safety and cautiousness and that’s what the majority of our citizens need in order to comply. At least set the orders for the upcoming holiday. Easter was already weird, we got Memorial weekend, we got graduation parties... just stay home for 4th of July. Hand out free sparklers and have parades in the street. We can do this.

I appreciate your comments very much. I was born in San Angelo but grew up in Arizona. I am constantly amazed at the duality of Texans. On the one hand they want their freedoms and on the other hand they don't believe in the opportunities of education and scientific thought. On the one hand they are conservative about how other people take care of their bodies and want to help them live healthier, longer lives; on the other hand they seem to do everything in their power to wreck their own health and the health of others because it seems intrusive. I don't really get Texas, and I don't want to get sick either because some stupid person thinks they have a cold or allergies when they really have SARS. I think that the mayor's letter may be the opening salvo in a more stringent approach as we approach July 4th. It may not make her popular, and people will congregate anyway somewhere, but she will be able to leave office knowing in her heart that she did the best she could for her city.

If some of you folks in the preceding comments don't care about getting sick, being hospitalized, going on a ventilator, that's your choice. However, you have absolutely no spiritual, moral, ethical, or constitutional right to visit your misery on others. If you can't protect your fellow citizens by staying six feet away from them in public or by wearing a mask or by following any of the CDC guidelines, then you need to stay home. If you make someone else sick, you are injuring them. If you are sick and you expose someone, then you have assaulted them. If someone dies because of your inane way of thinking and your irrational fear of surrendering to science, then you have committed manslaughter. The rest of us are wearing masks, and in my case also gloves, because any right thinking persons knows there are idiots like you out there. So just go ahead Bubba and drink your beer and hang out at the local watering hole and complain about everybody and everything else. But the rest of us want a life, a real one.

"So just go ahead Bubba and drink your beer and hang out at the local watering hole and complain about everybody and everything else. " - lizbetigan

Thank you for respecting our customs and way of life. Please go back to Arizona. <3

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