El Paso Mayor And County Judge ‘No Trace Of Delta Variant’

Is the Delta variant of the coronavirus here in El Paso? Monday afternoon El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said as of today, "We have no delta variant cases in El Paso. We cannot emphasize the importance of being vaccinated enough.” El Paso does have a very good response to getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Almost 70 percent of people between the ages of 12 and up have been fully vaccinated. That is better than the national average right now, but that doesn't mean that we are in the clear.

The Delta variant is in every state in the union and that means that even though the virus might not have been detected in El Paso, it's unlikely that it will stay that way. Leeser and County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said that the numbers of COVID-19 infections between July 7 and 14 went up by 251 new cases. Of those almost 80 percent of the new infections were among unvaccinated people.

Samaniego reminded the public where we were just a few months ago to taking the lead in getting people vaccinated. Social media in El Paso went wild with speculation that he might talk about a mask mandate but the County Judge only encouraged El Pasoans to wear masks.

Leeser gave an update about the City's lab equipment. He said that equipment will be moved from the County’s Medical Examiner office to a facility that the City bought last year. The facility should be operational by the first week of August and will be used for testing for virus cases and identifying strains. That testing is currently being done by state and federal entities in Lubbock, a process that typically takes 10 days.

Let's keep staying safe by getting vaccinated and wearing masks. We don't want to be California, after all.