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An executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott to reopen in-store retail shopping, dine-in restaurants, movie theaters, museums, libraries and more took effect May 1 and will continue through May 15.

The Wimberley City Council unanimously approved a contract with Aqua Texas for sewer system services during tonight’s special council meeting.

Learning can be achieved in many ways: by first-hand experience, watching others, in the classroom, or as of now, using technology to get the points across by Zoom, YouTube, or other means not even thought of a decade ago.

”We know businesses and workers here are hurting,” said Dalton Sweat, editor of the Wimberley View. ”We’re hurting, too. But if we can pull together as a community, we can weather this. Here at the Wimberley View, we want to do everything we can to help everyone get through the pandemic and get back to work. With these matching grants, we can help local businesses tell their story as they rebound and rebuild.”

Local doctors from Live Oak Health Partners were on the Wimberley Square this weekend with masks trying to help protect and inform the public.

The Wimberley City Council unanimously approved a contract with Aqua Texas for sewer s

Pedernales Electric Cooperative has been trimming trees along the power lines in the Wimberley Valley for a few weeks now. Due to the time of the year, many have expressed concern about the practice spreading oak wilt.

Labs are experiencing slow volume during the COVID-19 pandemic and are calling for support during Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. Like other businesses hit hard by stay-at-home orders and the subsequent economic crisis, many medical laboratories are losing revenue and facing reduced staffing hours.Most other businesses, however, don’t play a significant medical role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and finding a way back to normal through testing. Medical and public health labs are the only businesses that detect infections and viruses like SARS-CoV-2 for diagnostic purposes.“We are always there to perform testing for detecting infections, cross matching blood for transfusion, performing chemistry and hematology testing, detecting cancerous diseases and so much more,” said Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, professor and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science program at Texas State University. “The positions require technical expertise and pro fessional judgment. During this pandemic another set of complex tests has been added to our arsenal. We are essential in determining whether you have the infection and that drives many subsequent medical decisions.”Rohde said that because of the way governments have responded with delaying elective surgeries and other medical procedures, there is reduced testing to run in the labs. Patients aren’t going to their doctors for their routine cholesterol checks or STD screenings.He urges government officials to support the professionals and the labs that run the tests to ensure they stay operational throughout the crisis.“Though we may not realize it until we are in need of disease detection, diagnosis and treatment, laboratory testing plays a crucial role in our health-care system,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in his proclamation for Medical Laboratory Professionals week. “These dedicated men and women are invaluable members of medical teams across the Lone Star State, and their contributions are critical to meeting the health care needs of our state on not only a daily basis but also during public health emergencies, such as during the present coronavirus pandemic.”There are about 310,000 medical lab professionals in the United States who have been through rigorous training and education to become credentialed and certified to serve 331 million people, equaling one lab professional for every 1,067 Americans. The results of the tests they perform enable educated decisions by physicians, nurses, policymakers, government officials and many others.“When you hear about drive-thru COVID-19 testing centers, what you are really observing is the important first step in the testing process, the collection of a specimen,” Rohde said. “This is often performed by a physician, nurse or medical assistant. The testing itself occurs in hospital laboratories, reference laboratories and public health laboratories and is performed by medical laboratory scientists and technicians with the leadership and support from pathologists and our other medical laboratory professionals.” Hays County has several test collection centers but fewer labs: Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) is a designated lab for the county referred tests and Labcorps and Quest Diagnostics are each running tests collected from private collection sites. Labcorps and Quest Diagnostics are running 40,000-45,000 COVID-19 tests per day nationwide.When talking about testing supply shortages, there is more to diagnosing COVID-19 than the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) molecular test that most government officials and physicians are trying to get their hands on.“What I’m hearing from laboratorians in the trenches is they may have plenty of lab tests, but the lab test is not the complete picture,” Rohde said. “Preanalytical material is a complete other supply chain issue. If you have a hospital lab with 1,000 test capability because you have 20 kits that each run 50 samples, but you only have 30 specimen swabs, you are only going to test 30.”For every molecular test, used for diagnosing real time viral infection, there has to be a nasopharyngeal swab and viral transport media.

After a string of small reports, Hays County confirmed six new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, April 27. On Sunday, April 26, there were no new confirmed cases of the disease. That followed two consecutive days of one confirmed case.

“Ladybird” Johnson, the First Lady, and her efforts of beautifying America and Keep America Beautiful were full underway when San Antonio’s Hemisfair, a world’s fair exposition, was to be held and the move to spruce up Texas for world visitors was needed.

The Coronavirus has affected every facet of human life. Masks, six-foot distances, long supermarket lines, the list could go on and on. Now when you do your limited shopping at Ace, Mima’s, H-E-B or Brookshires, cashiers have Plexiglas separating them from customers, even in friendly Wimberley. Life as we know it has changed.

From Staff Reports