Residents adapt to new norm as Williamson County sees large spike in COVID-19 cases

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Travis County isn’t the only area seeing a spike. Williamson County also saw a big increase in cases compared to what they’ve been seeing.

Since the beginning of the week the county has seen around 50 new cases, a number the area hasn’t seen since April when they ramped up testing.

Round Rock has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the county with its current active total cases at 72 on Wednesday. This is more than double the next city, Georgetown, which had 31 active cases on Wednesday.

“I can tell you that we have clusters existing clusters in round rock and we don’t want those existing clusters to become outbreaks,” said health district executive director Derrick Neal. “The good news is that this week I believe we closed 2 of the clusters that we have and we will continue to work through that with our mitigation practices and our contact tracing that we’ve been aggressive with.”

As the threat of COVID-19 continues to stick around, some county residents are getting creative in how they are adapting to this new norm. “When I go to grocery stores I use my left hand so my other hand can be in my pocket to use my card,” said Serges Lemo, a Round Rock resident.

Since the pandemic Limo said he’s been taking personal health very seriously; he’s got his mask, carries around some hand sanitizer, and he even tries to only use one hand to touch things when he’s outside his home, all in an effort to minimize contact. “When I get to the car I use hand sanitizer before I open the car door,” said Limo.

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Neal said this increase is partly due to Memorial Day weekend, a backlog of test results finally coming in, as well as the nursing home testing being done which was mandated by the state. As more of the state begins to reopen and more holidays just around the corner, Neal is urging folks to be cautious.

“We’re still in a pandemic don’t forget that,” said Neal.

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