Is COVID-19 in the Wimberley Valley?

Is COVID-19, the coronavirus, in the Wimberley Valley?

While there are zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 in either Wimberley or Woodcreek as of the afternoon of March 27, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus hasn’t reach the local community.

“It is not so much that it isn’t there, because we definitely have community spreading,” Hays County Epidemiologist Eric Schneider said. “Of the 13 confirmed cases that I have (in Hays County) the first four all traveled somewhere. The last nine had no history of travel 14 days prior to them getting sick. This is definitely spreading in Hays County.”

Tests are being performed. In fact, Schneider confirmed that people from the Wimberley Valley have been tested for COVID-19, and the results came back negative.

But, tests are not readily available for everybody, as is the case throughout much of the United States.

“We do have a lack of testing locations and even a lack of testing supplies throughout Hays County and Texas,” Schneider said.  “We are still waiting for the test kits that were promised to us by the state and federal government.”

This means that Hays County is following the guidelines on who should be tested, which is not everyone who shows symptoms.

“The emergency rooms in San Marcos, Kyle and Buda are testing people whose symptoms are severe enough that they require hospitalization,” Schneider said. “For other people who are showing symptoms, first we want to rule out flu or strep… We want them to contact their local providers.”

In many cases that do not appear to be severe, doctors are asking patients to go home and self quarantine without being tested.

“That is happening and that is the standard medical advice,” Schneider said. “The majority of people who do develop symptoms are going to have mild fever, cough and maybe a bit of shortness of breath, but they can go home and isolate and quarantine for 14 days or until their fever is gone for 72 hours. They will be able to get over it, and let it run its course, so people are getting that recommendation from doctors to go home and isolate… If it becomes more difficult to breathe because of shortness of breath or your fever spikes, then we want to you seek medical attention.”

Schneider agreed that there isn’t enough evidence to say that COVID-19 isn’t in the Wimberley Valley because of the testing requirements. What can be said is that Wimberley or Woodcreek hasn’t had a case that reached a point of severity to where testing became necessary and was subsequently confirmed as positive.

He also said that some of the social distancing measures taken locally could have had an impact on the spread of COVID-19.

“Very early on, Woodcreek went into the voluntary quarantine, and they may have cut down on any community spread if anyone did have it,” Schneider said. “But this is not going away… We want people to focus on their social distancing right now.”