The Woodlands Township COVID-19 Update – September 18

The Woodlands Township shared the following COVID-19 Update on Friday, September 18, 2020.

Chairman Bunch Gives Update on Governor’s Statewide Orders
Effective Monday, September 21, 2020, all retail, offices, manufacturing, libraries museums and gyms, may operate up to a 75 percent occupancy. Hospitals may return to normal elective surgeries. Effective Thursday, September 24, 2020 senior living and long-term care facilities may reopen for visitation while following certain health guidelines and standards. Watch the video for more information.

State News

Governor Abbott Expands Capacity for Certain Services In Texas
Governor Greg Abbott provided an update on the state’s ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19. During yesterday’s press conference, the Governor issued Executive Orders expanding occupancy levels for restaurants, retail stores, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, gyms and exercise facilities and classes, museums, and libraries, and re-authorizing elective surgeries for a majority of the state of Texas. The Governor also announced new guidance related to visitations at nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the state. Read the full press release.

Details include the importance of personal vigilance and practicing recommended health standards (staying home when possible, washing hands often, social distancing and wearing a mask in public). The state continues to focus on safety standards: (1) maintaining practices that slow the spread; (2) increasing testing; and (3) protecting the most vulnerable.

The governor also announced that the state will continue to use hospitalizations as the key metric for determining reopening parameters. The state will continue to focus on all data but concentrate on the regional hospitalizations in the state’s 22 hospital regions to determine the appropriate response in each of those regions. The governor indicated that if a region maintained a rate of more than 15% of hospital patients being COVID patients for greater than seven days additional recourse will be needed to slow the spread in that region.

Regions with fewer than 15% COVID patients are eligible for the following new reopening standards:

• Effective Monday, September 21, 2020, certain businesses (all retail, office, manufacturing, libraries/museums and gyms) may begin to operate at up to 75% capacity (up from 50%);
• Hospitals may return to normal elective surgeries;
• Effective Thursday, September 24, 2020, senior-living and long-term care facilities may reopen to visitation following certain health guidelines and standards;
• Bars must remain closed. The governor noted that bars have been noted nationally as potential areas of spread and therefore must remain closed. The state continues to work with bar owners and their associations on finding ways to allow bars to open as soon as possible. 

19 of the state’s 22 hospital regions will be able to follow the new standards. The Rio Grande, Laredo and Victoria regions must continue to operate at the 50% capacity limitations currently in place due to continued high hospitalizations in those areas.

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County News

Montgomery County COVID-19 Case Count September 18, 2020
Montgomery County Public Health District, in conjunction with the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, is saddened to confirm an additional death related to COVID-19.

• A man in his 70s, from Conroe, died in the hospital. He had co-morbidities in addition to testing positive for COVID-19.

They can also confirm:

• TOTAL cases of COVID-19 increased by 122 to 10,571 since yesterday’s (9/17) report. All cases were tested in the month of September. Today, we have added 108 antigen positive tests that we have received since 9/1/2020. Moving forward, they will be included daily in addition to PCR positive tests. (See more info below.)
• ACTIVE cases of COVID-19 increased by 77 to 1,645 since yesterday’s (9/17) report.
• 28 residents are known to be in the hospital, as a result of contact investigations. Contact investigations have not been initiated on all reported cases.
• 7,083 people have clinically recovered.

*As of today, these numbers now include rapid antigen positive results with a test date on or after 9/1/2020. In the graph below, positive results have been added to the day they were reported to Public Health. For more information, please see the previous press release.

You can find more information on the SETRAC website.

Take steps to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

• Consider staying home unless it is necessary to leave your home.
• Avoid groups of people.
• Practice social distancing.
• Wear a mask (if it is necessary to leave your home).
• Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer frequently.
• Disinfect surfaces in your car and around your home.

View the case-by-case updates on the MCPHD website. Cases marked with an “A” in the case number are antigen positive cases. View the dashboard.

Harris County COVID-19 Case Count
Harris County Public Health (HCPH) publishes their daily case count, combined with the City of Houston’s daily case count, here. Cases by zip code in Harris County can be found by clicking on areas of the map.

The Village of Creekside Park is located in two zip codes: 77375 and 77389, and these also include Magnolia, Augusta Pines/Auburn Lakes/West Rayford Road in northwest Harris County. Today, Harris County is reporting zip code 77375 has 1,054 confirmed positive cases with 48 active cases, and 77389 has 542 confirmed positive cases with 37 active cases.

COVID-19 Case Count Brief from The Woodlands Fire Department
As of Friday, September 18, 2020, + or – signifies change since previous report.

 Montgomery County 

• 10,571 – Confirmed, +122
• 1,645 – Active Cases, +77
• 136 – Deaths, +1
• 7,083 – Recovered, +44
• 28 – Hospitalized, +5

Harris County 

• 52,065 – Confirmed, +501
• 2,324 – Active Cases, +104
• 646 – Deaths, +9
• 49,093 – Recovered, +387  

Get Tested for COVID-19
Montgomery County residents may sign up online for Free COVID-19 testing at https://www.mchd-tx.org. Call 936-523-3916 for more information.

Harris County residents may also sign up for free COVID-19 testing online at hcphtx.org. Call 832-927-7575 for more information.

Community Resources

Numerous resources are available in the community for support. These vary from food banks to financial assistance and much more. Please visit the Community Resources webpage to find more information about resources in the community related to COVID-19.

The Woodlands Township COVID-19 eNewsletter
The Woodlands Township COVID-19 (Coronavirus) informational enewsletter will now be published every Tuesday and Thursday and as needed. Manage your notifications and subscriptions.

Township’s Coronavirus Page
The Woodlands Township’s COVID-19 page can be found at www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/covid19. This page features Montgomery and Harris county hubs, community resources and news from the Federal Government and the CDC. It also includes the latest news from the Township, partner agencies, important links, FAQs, live Twitter feeds and more.

Source: The Woodlands Township

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