Peterson adjusts visitor policy due to COVID

Peterson Health announced August 2 that children 16 years and younger will not be allowed to enter the hospital.

According to Audrey Cortez, Director of Patient Experience, limiting visitation can mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and any variants.

We know this is difficult for both the patients and their family or friends and we apologize, but the restrictions are critical in order to protect the health of our patients and employees and to help contain the spread of COVID-19,” said Cortez. “We are seeing large numbers of children congregating in the hospital and visiting family and we have no way of verifying if they are vaccinated or not.”

Visitors, employees and guests are still required to wear masks.

COVID-19 numbers in Bandera County and the surrounding area continue to rise.

As of Monday, Bandera County had an estimated 56 active COVID-19 cases according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

DSHS also attributed another death in the county to COVID-19, bringing the total COVID-19 fatality count to 32.

DSHS lists Kendall County as having 74 active COVID-19 cases, Kerr County as having 135, Real County as having seven, Uvalde County as having 156, Medina County as having 108 and Bexar County as having 9,032.

There are currently 28 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Peterson, up from last week’s count of 19.

A total of 6,251 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients were in Texas hospitals as of Sunday, which is four times the number reported last month and the most seen since February, according to DSHS.

The Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University reported 62,722 new cases in Texas during the past week and 271 deaths, which is five times more than last month’s numbers.

A total of 12.67 million Texans are fully vaccinated, which accounts for about 43 percent of the state’s population.