Health experts ‘hopeful’ El Pasoans social distanced on Mother’s Day to avoid new virus outbreaks

EL PASO, Texas -- It was another spring holiday that the El Paso community spends with family, Mother's Day. This year, celebrated at a distance. The big question asked during the Easter holiday just one month ago remained the same: Could the Borderland see a large spike in Covid-19 cases?

On Easter, April 12, the number of positive cases in El Paso County stood at 292. Only three days later, the number of cases had jumped more than 100, reaching 393.

Nearly two weeks after Easter, cases skyrocketed from 706 to 780. A 74-case spike, one of the largest the county had seen.

But on Friday, May 8, four weeks after Easter, El Paso County then saw a spike of 86 cases in a single day.

"As we know the incubation time period is about two weeks more or less to see the results," said Dr. Armando Meza, an infectious disease expert with Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso.

“I think the increase of cases is a combination of two things. One is that we're testing more and second is that there's still an active infection happening as more population of patients that (are) not yet immune that our susceptible are being exposed," Meza said.

City/County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza said the perfect scenario for the Mother's Day holiday would have been if everyone avoided in-person celebrations.

Social gatherings were forbidden, which is why parks across the county remained close, as those were a potential hot-spot for many families to typically enjoy the day.

Back in April, our ABC-7 crews went around town to see if anyone was violating the stay-at-home order by heading to the parks. On Sunday, our crews witnessed a similar situation. Park crews, patrolling the area, told several people to turn around, specifically at Ascarate Park.

As the number of cases in El Paso County continue to rise, health experts remained optimistic that El Pasoans will social distance.

"I'm hopeful that (a large spike in cases) will not occur," Dr. Meza. "I understand that there's a social need to interact. I believe that humans can change behaviors if we have the right incentives."

“We know that we want to give all the love in person to our moms... I would recommend that people just keep them healthy,” Ocaranza said.

On Mother's Day, county officials reported one new death and 18 new cases, bringing the death toll to 33 and the total number of cases to 1,340.