Coryell County officials weed through thousands of new COVID cases

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

The office of Coryell County Judge Roger Miller has spent time this week weeding through the 2,488 new unreported COVID-19 cases received from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ (DSHS) Public Health Region 7 (PHR7) on Monday.

This nearly doubled the county’s tally of cases, which the county reported as 2,695 as of Jan. 28, excluding the case numbers of inmates in Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities. Active cases at that time were 379. 

The DSHS website listed a total of 6,895 cases in Coryell County, with an estimated 1,118 active cases as of Wednesday, Feb. 3. However, DSHS includes TDCJ inmate cases in those numbers. 

The county had not finished going through the new load of cases as of press time Thursday, so had not published its own cumulative list. 

On Thursday, Copperas Cove released its weekly update, several days later than its usual Monday update due to the volume of cases provided by DSHS, according to the city’s emergency management coordinator, Deputy Fire Chief Gary Young. 

Copperas Cove now lists a total of 616 active cases, out of a new cumulative case total of 2,473 as of Thursday, Feb. 4. 

As of press time Thursday, Judge Miller and his assistant, June Huckabee, still had not finished going through the addresses given by PHR7 to the county. 

Reconciling the cases received from DSHS has been an ongoing issue throughout the pandemic, which Miller has been very frank about. For example, a number of the cases attributed to Coryell County had addresses which were not located in Coryell County at all. Some cases had no address attached to the patient name whatsoever, and some cases were simply deemed “probable” cases, all of which Miller’s office will not count.  

Most of those cases were during December 2020 and January 2021, but some were as far back as May 2020. 

The issue with unreported cases arose when the databases used by the contact tracing company and DSHS were not compatible, and DSHS had to manually enter each case. This caused the months of backlog, explained Coryell County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Harrell. 

While the cases continue to be counted, vaccine distribution continues the process in Coryell County. 

On Saturday, the city of Copperas Cove, along with Coryell Health, and CCISD, will be  hosting its first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination clinic in the parking lot of Copperas Cove High School, and will be administering the first round of Pfizer vaccines to roughly 600 individuals who are in either the 1a or 1b category of the phased distribution. The city announced the clinic on Monday evening, and by Tuesday morning, the doses were allotted. 

Currently, there are only three public providers for the COVID-19 vaccine within Coryell County. Coryell Health, and pharmacies at both Copperas H-E-B Plus! and the Gatesville H-E-B, Judge Miller said at Tuesday’s Copperas Cove city council meeting.

“We have two local pharmacies who have applied for provider status, but I have not yet seen them approved from the state,” Miller said. 

Miller shared that the state has reported more than 3,000 people in Coryell County have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 516 have been fully vaccinated. These include residents of Coryell County who have received vaccines outside of the county. 

Miller added that there are more residents wanting the vaccine than there are doses being allocated. 

“That’s no different than every other city or county in the state,” Miller said.

All scheduling for the vaccine via Coryell Health is done online, with Coryell Health accepting names and information for a waiting list. The link for Coryell Health can be found at https://app.blockitnow.com/consumer/coryell-health. Coryell Health email is covidvaccine@coryellhealth.org. 

The county will continue to receive vaccine doses weekly and continue to administer vaccines to those on the waiting list, and as openings arise. 

COVID-19 cases in Central Texas*

Bell County 1,895 active cases (18,623 total)  

Burnet County 953 active cases (3,492 total)

Coryell County** 1,118 active cases (6,895 total)

Copperas Cove (city) 616 active cases (2,473 total)

Lampasas County 146 active cases (1,566 total)

McLennan County 736 active cases (23,444 total)

Williamson County 1,546 active cases (32,746 total)

*Numbers from Texas DSHS, Coryell County, Lampasas County; Bell, McLennan, and Williamson County Public Health Districts

**Numbers as of Wednesday, Feb. 3, including TDCJ inmate cases