McKinney part of meeting with state health leaders; State calls for fight against 'COVID cynicism'

Hannigan's Notebook

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McKinney part of meeting with state health leaders; State calls for fight against 'COVID cynicism'

Nov 30, 2020

Our COVID-19 hospitalizations are up and the state is noticing.

Monday morning, Henderson County Judge Wade McKinney participated in a conference call with Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Commissioner John Hellerstedt and Dr. John Zerwas, a COVID-19 advisor to the Governor. The call was to discuss the rising COVID-19 numbers in Henderson County's Trauma Service Area (TSA).

Monday afternoon, I joined Judge McKinney in his courtroom for an unscheduled podcast to review the meeting. Here are the highlights:

The TSA's numbers are right at the 15 percent hospitalization level set by the Governor for reducing the capacity for some businesses. Find my latest update on this here.
This both a health crisis and an economic crisis.
This second wave of COVID-19 has already required more medical personnel than the first wave.
State officials expect the pandemic to continue until the third quarter of 2021.
The most important thing residents can do to help is follow the Big 3 established from the beginning: social distance, wear a mask when you can't social distance, and wash your hands.

Fighting "COVID cynicism" and getting people to follow the established prevention protocols was the gist of the call, McKinney said.

"They were imploring the county judges of the region to encourage everyone to start doing the Big 3," he said.

"Breaking that cynicism, that belief that this is not a real thing, that's now what the direction is," McKinney said, "it's got to be."

Listen to the complete interview above.

Notes to Know:

Gov. Greg Abbott's Executive Order GA-32, which went into effect Oct. 14, 2020, defines high hospitalizations any Trauma Service Area (TSA) that has had seven consecutive days in which the number of COVID- 19 hospitalized patients as a percentage of total hospital capacity exceeds 15 percent. After seven days at that level, any business in the TSA that is operating at 75 percent capacity must pull back to 50 percent.
Texas separates the state into 22 regions called Trauma Service Areas, or TSAs, for hospital data. Henderson County's region is designated TSA-G and includes Tyler/Longview. TSA-G includes about 960,000 people.

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