El Paso City Covid-19 operations are back to phase 1, at least partially
EL PASO, Texas - During the City Council of El Paso meeting on Tuesday, council members discussed the Covid-19 update. While El Paso has been a leader in vaccination rates and testing, positive cases are on the rise here in the Borderland and nationwide too. City Manager Tommy Gonzalez compared the partial to fully vaccinated statistics for El Paso, Texas and the United States.
In El Paso, the partial vaccination rate for all ages recommended for getting vaccinated is 94%. The rate of fully vaccinated El Pasoans is 74%. In Texas, the partial vaccination rate for ages urged to get vaccinated is 72%, and the percentage of those who are fully vaccinated is 61%. That compares with the entire country where the partial vaccination rate is 78%, whereas the percentage of fully vaccinated people is 66%, Gonzalez shared during the meeting.
The rate of positive cases is up to 11% in El Paso, which compares to the 23% positivity rate for the entire country. According to the city manager, in El Paso, the rate of breakthrough cases is 43% with this latest surge.
During the discussion, District 2 City Representative Alexsandra Annello asked the city manager if the city operations had returned to phase 1. Gonzalez answered, "we have." Annello then asked if all employees have returned to phase one, to which Gonzalez responded:
"No ma'am. Just like we did in the beginning we do that where we can in the organization if it's administrative kind of work. In some cases like the streets department is a good example. That's one that doesn't scale back to that phase one, all the way back - their phase one looks much differently. But in terms of going back to phase one for the others that can, we've done that. That puts us at roughly 50% of employees, the rest can work from home."
Others at the meeting expressed their concerns about those who are supposed to be working but becoming ill and testing positive, causing gaps in the workforce in various departments in the city. One company assisting the City with help at Covid testing sites is LTS Equipment services. It is estimated 20% of LTS employees have tested positive for Covid, leaving a gap in their workforce at the testing sites.
More are going virtual as the City goes through a Covid spike. The city manager emphasized the importance of wearing a mask and getting vaccinated and how the City will continue to push vaccinations.
