Local authorities urge residents to flatten the curve by avoiding ‘super spreader events’

TYLER — Tyler City Hall was the backdrop where various East Texas health officials provided an update on the coronavirus pandemic Monday afternoon. In unison health care officials felt like “COVID fatigue” was a major reason in the “dramatic increase” in COVID-19 cases across the region. George Roberts, NET Health CEO said, “The trend line on hospitalizations shows East Texas patients in Smith County hospitals the peak was 214 on Nov. 17, Today we are at 221, so we are at a peak level on Monday Nov. 23, 2020.”

Dr. Paul McGaha, DO, Smith County Health Authority urged residents to take heart with a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a couple of vaccines nearing approval. “First up will be health care workers, those on the front lines…will be the first ear-marked for that.” McGaha continued, “It will probably be around Aprilish, or thereabouts before it comes in sufficient quantities where everybody whoever wants a vaccine can receive it.”

Tom Cummins, MD, Chief Medical Officer, UT Health East Texas, asked residents to take an active role in making a difference. “We know that every time there has been a major holiday since Memorial day weekend, with-in a couple of weeks there has been another surge of cases. This is no different. Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple of days. Christmas will come. New Year’s will come, and as people come together and gather those become spreader events. So what I would really encourage people to do, is to avoid those. I’ve got family that I have not scene in well over a year. But I don’t think I can safely go and see them in others states because I could carry it to them.”

Mark Anderson, MD, Chief Medical Officer Christus, TMF, said, “We’ve been aggressively planning for this pandemic since before it started in Texas. We focused that around our associates…our PPE, our testing and our in-patient facilities. That in-combination with all the other plans we have made, have really prepared us for the surge we are seeing this fall.”

Health officials all agreed that “COVID fatigue” was a driving force behind the large spike in coronavirus cases across East Texas and the rest of the country in the past several weeks.