South Texas cities struggling against COVID-19 spikes

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Cities in South Texas are currently dealing with coronavirus spikes.

Corpus Christi is taking steps to deter people from going to the beach in an effort to keep COVID-19 numbers down.

“We’re pretty active of course our population is smaller than Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas but we have our hands full,” said Mayor Joe McComb.

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McComb said their area has been seeing a major increase in COVID-19 cases since Memorial Day. They estimated around 100,000 people showed up to their beaches that weekend.

“All of us have been cooped up since early April and our numbers we so low we had very few cases and I think a lot of people from San Antonio, Austin said hey let’s just go to corpus it’s safe down there,” said McComb.

At the start of the week, their county reported more than 200 new cases and 8 death. Mayor McComb said they are taking steps to deter people from going to the beach without having to close them by banning vehicles. If you want to go out and get some sun on the sand, you’ll have to walk.

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“It gives us no pleasure to do that, we love our beaches and we love for people to come out and come down but right now we’re trying to get this coronavirus under control,” said McComb.

Further south along the border in Hidalgo County is an area struggling to fight the virus. “We find ourselves in a very serious situation because we have a very high rate of infection and we are also having a high rate of mortality. We find ourselves really in trouble,” said County Judge Richard Cortez.

Cortez said around the end of May they went from a few cases to triple-digit cases. This week they reported around 550 new cases with more than 30 deaths and the cases are taking a toll on their hospitals. “They’re at full capacity pretty,” said Cortez.

Cortez said it’s at the point where he is working on issuing another stay at home order even though he knows they legally can not enforce it. “Even if I pass a shelter in place order that can’t be enforced legally. If we get 40%, 30%, or even 10% compliance, it’s better than nothing but we’ll see what happens,” said Cortez.

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Both areas are currently working with the state to combat the virus and both areas are hopeful their numbers will go down soon. 

KTBC reported this story from Austin, Texas.

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