Rocio Villalobos 
HIDALGO COUNTY – As of Monday, April 20, at least 42 out of the 261 individuals testing positive for COVID-19 in Hidalgo County have recovered — meaning after being diagnosed, they have not had symptoms for 10 days or a fever for three days.
Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez says this high recovery rate is in large part due to the county’s orders prohibiting non-essential activity and mass gatherings, adding many are still not taking the virus seriously enough.
“There’s still a lot of people that think this is not a danger to us,” he said. “They feel very annoyed, very disappointed that a lot of their freedoms have been taken away from them. What they don’t know is that I believe that we’re doing well because the precautions that we took, the controls we put in place to keep it from spreading because other areas like NYC and other areas in California that didn’t pay attention to this virus are now suffering the consequences.”
Three people with preexisting health conditions have died in the county after contracting COVID-19. Judge Cortez says the next couple of days, now through Sunday, are crucial to determining when the Valley will hit its peak of positive cases and then be able to begin to recover.
“If there isn’t a drastic change in the number of infections, we think we’re gonna hit the peak period maybe as early as the end of the month,” he said. “But it could be maybe in the third week of May that’s kind of what we’re anticipating.”
He adds he’s been having meetings with local leaders to discuss when and how to begin reopening businesses and assures it’s going to be a slow process to protect the health and safety of the community.
“It’s going to be difficult to return to life as it once was,” he said. “I think all of us understand that this virus impacted this whole world. Every single part of the world is being affected by now. I think it’s going to be difficult for us to go back to mass gatherings, to things of that nature. We’re going to have to get ready for a new norm.”
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