Coronavirus Death Toll Grows To 46 In Williamson County

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — The death count from the coronavirus rose to 46 on Tuesday after a man in his 90s became the latest to succumb to respiratory illness, officials said.

Patient privacy laws precluded health officials from releasing further identifying information other than revealing the victim was a nonagenarian. The death comes one day county health officials reported three more deaths from the illness and the 14th death in a span of two weeks.

“It is devastating to see that COVID-19 has taken the life of another member of our community," Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said in a prepared statement. "On March 18, the county announced its first four COVID-19 cases, and since then we have felt the loss of too much and too many."

Don't miss the latest coronavirus updates from health and government officials in the Austin area. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters for what you need to know daily.

Gravell then dispensed advice toward residents' safety: "As your County Judge, your health and well-being continue to be my top priorities, especially if you are part of the vulnerable population that is at a higher risk of complications from this virus," he said. "Let me impress upon everyone that taking personal responsibility and following safety measures to keep you and your family healthy will be key in our overall success. The days ahead may not be simple, but you are not alone. We are in this together, and together we are stronger.”

Such advice notwithstanding, Gravell has been resolute in not implementing official safeguards amid the rising rate of illness — even as surrounding communities — including Cedar Park and Round Rock — along with Texas have made the wearing of protective face coverings mandatory. Instead, Gravell has extolled the virtues of individual "common sense" in residents' exercising of the practice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that wearing masks is the most effective way of mitigating the spread of illness.

Related stories:

Data found on a statistical dashboard maintained by the Williamson County and Cities Health District had seemingly not been updated as of Tuesday evening following what officials called a "data transfer" that made statistics unavailable over the weekend. The dashboard still showed the number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 3,151, with 108 patients currently hospitalized — 31 at intensive care units and a dozen on ventilators — as had been reported on Monday.

Also, the "Cases by City" category no longer offered the option of seeing the number of active cases per county municipality. The only two options remaining in that portion of the dashboard were the number of confirmed cases and historical illness counts. The number of recovered cases also no longer appeared on the dashboard Tuesday.

In a response to an email from Patch late Tuesday, health district spokesperson Deb Strahler confirmed the unchanged nature of the dashboard statistics typically updated by 4:30 p.m. daily. She also explained why the active cases count per city was no longer one of the dashboard features.

"WCCHD [Williamson County and Cities Health District] transitioned to the state’s contact tracing/data system over the weekend, and we will not have access to some of the data we were collecting prior," she explained in a reply to Patch's queries. "The Active/Recovered fields are no longer available to us due to cases being directed to the state for follow up — we do not have access to those data once assigned over. WCCHD is working to post 'estimated recovered cases' on the dashboard in future updates. Our data team is aware of the dashboard issue and is working to update it currently."

The numbers on Monday represent a 682-case increase from July 3 — the last date for which figures were available until Monday as health officials paused the dashboard for the aforementioned data transfer.

Tuesday's death followed news of three more fatalities reported on Monday and another three the previous Friday. On June 30, two women in their 50s and 80s were reported to have died of the illness. Last Monday, two more patients — men in their 40s and 80s — succumbed to the virus preceded the previous Sunday by a man in his 40s and days before that by the deaths of two elderly patients.

All told: 14 deaths in about two weeks' time for the rampant illness for which no vaccine exists, all in a span of two weeks.

According to the dashboard, Round Rock has — by far — the greatest number of confirmed cases in the county with 1,126 so far. Georgetown comes in second with 523 confirmed cases, followed by Cedar Park, Hutto and Leander with 363, 210 and 182 confirmed cases, respectively.

There's also a sliver of Austin with WilCo jurisdiction from where 197 cases have emerged. And then there's the "other" category comprising areas of the county with less than 20,000 population with 505 cases. Patch previously attempted to learn the identity of those areas, only to be told by the health district's spokesperson they are not legally able to provide the specific geographical reference given those areas' sparse populations.

Round Rock also leads in terms of fatalities, with 26 to date. Georgetown and Cedar Park have had eight and six deaths, according to the dashboard, while Hutto has had one. Austin and "other" have had two deaths apiece, the data show.

For more information on the latest COVID-19 cases count in Williamson County, please visit the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD) dashboard located at www.wcchd.org/COVID-19/dashboard.php.

Those with respiratory illness symptoms such as cough, fever and shortness of breath are urged to contact their health care provider. However, health officials stress the importance of calling ahead before arriving at a clinic, urgent care or emergency department to avoid potential illness spread.

For information on the county response to COVID-19, visit www.wilco.org/COVID-19.