Local public health officials in Texas are alerting residents in one county of the need to stop the spread of the coronavirus after the 85th infant in the county has been diagnosed with the disease, CNN reports.
Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, reported that the county had seen a flat coronavirus caseload which had spiked in recent weeks. “These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us stop the spread of this disease,” she pleaded.
The county has seen the fastest spike of cases in July of any metropolitan county in the state. Overall, the county has reported more than 8,000 cases and 82 deaths from the virus. Children under 1 year old account for 1% of all cases in the county.
Nueces County is the home of Corpus Christi and has a population of 340,000 people on the southeast coast of Texas. The birth rate of the county is 68/1,000 females, meaning that 85 infants calculates to roughly 2% of all births in the county, year to date.