An additional 24 people die in Hidalgo County from COVID-19; 207 new positive cases reported

MONDAY, 8-17-2020

Over a two-day period, 24 more people have died from complications related to COVID-19 and 207 more people learned they have tested positive for the virus, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said Sunday. This brings the total number of known positive cases in Hidalgo County to 22,013. Sunday’s totals reflect two days of reporting since county health officials did not report on Saturday. 

Sunday also marked the first time that negative tests surpassed the 100,000 mark with a total of 100,332 negative tests for the virus out of a total of 122,858 tests that have been administered since the pandemic began.

“There are some encouraging numbers we are seeing that I hope are the beginning of trends,” Judge Cortez said. “The number of people who have tested negative for this virus have always far surpassed the positive cases. But we are also seeing the number of hospitalizations down from just a week ago. Of course, the one number that continues to haunt this community is the number of people dying from this disease. I continue to pray for the victims of this virus, and all those who have been affected by these deaths. And I continue to ask the community to employ safe practices by staying at home when at all possible and to avoid crowds.”