Concerns About Island Visitors Doesn’t Match SPI Reality.
8/5/2020
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño gave the current UPDATE on the COVID-19 virus in a press conference Wednesday morning. In total, there have been 454 positive COVID-19 19 tests, 334 negatives, 214 cleared or recovered and 18 deaths in Cameron County with a steady average of 11 new cases per day.
Cameron County: 454 cases and 18 deaths.
Statewide: 330,369 cases and 906 deaths.
Nationally: 1,238,463 cases with 72,287 deaths.
The majority of the spread in Cameron County has been from Windsor Atrium, a Harlingen nursing home, and Veranda Rehabilitation and Healthcare with, “32 employees, 59 residents, including 10 residents who have passed. Windsor Atrium had 31 employees test positive, 45 residents, and 7 individuals who have passed away. 17 of the 18 deaths are related to those two nursing homes.” The two nursing homes make up a total of 167 of Cameron County’s cases.
During the press conference, South Padre Island was described as “spring break-like” this past weekend. According to the County Judge, “It was literally spring break at the island. People were not, for the most part, utilizing social distancing and most of them did not have a (face) cover.”
Later, it was asked by a press conference attendee how many people had travelled to the island. “SPI hotels are obviously now booking guests. Has there been any word from the island of (how many) visitors from outside the Valley there were?” asked the attendee.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” replied the County Judge. “Part of the problem was that there was utility work in Port Isabel that was slowing down traffic. It was bumper-to-bumper getting to the island. It stretched all the way to Laguna Vista. The numbers were in the thousands, anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 vehicles.”
Later the Brownsville Herald posted this article in its Facebook post, “It is estimated nearly 70,000 people visited South Padre Island from Friday through Sunday. #RGV” With the actual newspaper article title, “Mass movement: SPI fills up, expert braces for ‘new wave’ of virus.”
In the Herald’s article, Ed Caum, Director of the SPI Convention and Visitors Bureau, mentioned that the first week of May is, “normally the start of the Island’s busy season… Friday, Saturday and Sunday had 8,977, 10,866 and 7,833 incoming vehicles, respectively.” Caum noted that the travel industry uses two-and-a-half people per vehicle as a baseline for estimating the number of people. Using that baseline, the Island had 69,190 incoming visitors May 1-3, however that count of cars does not equal total visitors. There are residents returning home and workers commuting to the island.
Later this same day South Padre Island’s City Council members held a meeting and Councilwoman Eva Jean Dalton responded to claims of citizens not wearing masks or abiding by social distancing. “I saw everybody behaving, especially this past Sunday. I think everybody was distancing. They were picking up their trash. (They) seemed to be following the rules. They were all having fun.”
The utility work that has been going on in Port Isabel has been causing increased traffic delays daily for the past two weeks. This traffic is caused by police stopping heavy loads of traffic for at least 5 minutes at a time.
