Health officials note slight increase in Covid cases a week before Thanksgiving gatherings
SAN ANTONIO (KABB/WOAI) - San Antonio has seen a rise in Covid cases in the last two weeks.
While our health officials aren't alarmed yet, they have some advice ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
"If you get vaccinated and your family is vaccinated, you can feel good about enjoying a typical Thanksgiving and Christmas with your family and close friends," says chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
But now, just a week before Thanksgiving, San Antonio is seeing an increase in Covid cases and hospitalizations after seeing a decline the last few weeks.
The city's risk level is still low, but local doctors say it's something to keep an eye on.
"It looks like they’ve gone back up a little bit, they were as low as almost 130 in Bexar county hospitals and now we’re talking about maybe 150," says Dr. Thomas Patterson, chief of infectious diseases at UT Health's Long School of Medicine.
As of Wednesday, that number is 157 according to Metro Health.
San Antonio's seven-day moving average of new cases has climbed from 147 on November, to 175 on November 12 and now sits at 224 as of Wednesday.
Those are numbers we haven't seen since the last week of October.
Doctors note just because 78 percent of San Antonians have received at least one dose of the vaccine, if you plan to travel elsewhere for Thanksgiving, just know it's not the same in other parts of the country.
"A lot of areas in the upper Midwest, even some in the Northeast, there's even some increases far West as well," says Patterson. "If we’re traveling to those areas, it makes us more at risk or if our family members or friends are coming from those areas, we’ve got to be aware that they may also be coming with an unsuspecting guest ."
Our health experts say while we're all tired of hearing and talking about Covid, we can't ignore it until our case numbers are closer to zero.
"We've still got to use a little bit of caution until we get completely past this," says Patterson. "With some diligent and careful notes over these next few weeks, it’s a way to actually begin to enjoy the holidays and enjoy the season with your families again."
Of the 157 people in San Antonio who are hospitalized with covid Wednesday night, 57 of them are in the ICU.
Metro Health says our hospital stress is measured as moderate.
