El Paso isn’t seeing surge in virus cases, but community not yet in the clear

EL PASO, Texas — Parts of the country are currently seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases. While El Paso is trending downward, the Borderland isn’t in the clear just yet. 

“Back in July, when we had the lower value of Texas having a spike a surge in the cases, and then we caught up a couple of months later. So the fact that we don't have any cases doesn't necessarily mean that we are not going to have a surge,” said Dr. Armando Meza, the chief of infectious diseases at TTUHSC of El Paso. 

On Tuesday, only 87 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in El Paso — a trend of fewer than 100 cases within the last few days. But that doesn’t mean El Paso is out of the woods. 

Across the country, more variants of the virus are popping up — a race against the clock to get more people vaccinate to prevent the virus from mutating even faster. 

“The delay that we may see in a El Paso maybe actually with our own benefit, because the more people about getting these vaccine, even one dose, as we know will be protected and make this search less of a problem,” Meza said.  

The vaccines do provide some protection against the variants, Meza said. “So any protection at this point is actually better than no protection at all.”

The number of people being tested may also be a contributing factor as to why cases have been so low. 

Meza said people only typically get tested when they feel symptoms and younger patients, who may be asymptomatic, are getting infected. 

Meza explained that people who are “engaged in any high risk activity should get tested.”