March 2020
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The Voice of Seguin Today
Volume 55, Number 051
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Locals schools shut down in response to COVID-19
GRMC lays out preparedness plan to defend community from suspected COVID-19
Matador Curbside Lunch service to be provided for students
By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
He says four campuses will serve as those sites.
(Seguin) -- Today is the start of an extended Spring Break for local students. As reported all weekend long, the Seguin, Navarro and Marion ISDs have all cancelled classes this week in response to the COVID19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. All districts including Southwest Preparatory School, Lifegate Christian School and St. James Catholic School, will be closed March 16-20, 2020. All school events will also be cancelled during this time. Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez says the decision was based entirely on the safety of students and staff. "The decision to temporarily close schools is not an easy one, and the closure impacts our entire community," said Gutierrez.
This week's cancellation of classes also means the cancellation of all extracurricular activities including competitions and practices. Now to ensure the well being of all children as they remain away from
campuses, Sean Hoffmann, the chief communications officer for the Seguin ISD, says the district is making sure that their kids eat. He says breakfast and lunch meals will be offered to all Seguin ISD students regardless of eligibility during the school closure.
"The way that it is going to work in order to minimize exposure between staff and students is that the meals will be in a food truck and families can come and pick up the meal from the parking lot of those campuses and go. I was able to clarify -- we do have the labor that will allow us to provide meals to any of our students not just those who are on the free and reduced lunch programs so again, we will have those meals available at least until the food runs out for any of our students who are interested in visiting one of those four campuses," said Hoffmann. Meals can be picked up in the parking lots of Koennecke, McQueeney and Rodriguez Elementary Schools and Seguin High School. Breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. followed by lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. See CLOSED, page 2
By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
County. To check the number of cases reported in Texas counties, GRMC officials advise that residents go online to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services website for daily updates. That website is available at https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news/updates. shtm#coronavirus.
(Seguin) -- Since there remains lots of questions about the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, Guadalupe Regional Medical Center today is rolling out more information about the virus, in particular, how it hopes to combat or treat those should the virus scenario unfold here locally. Most importantly, what is the hospital doing to prepare for COVID-19 GRMC today hopes to answer a arriving in our community? number of those questions. Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, according to officials, is carefully First, what is COVID-19? monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is has a preparedness plan in place for a respiratory illness that can spread from identifying, triaging, and treating patients person to person. The virus that causes with suspected COVID-19. They say they COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was are in close contact with the Texas first identified during an investigation into Department of Health and Human an outbreak in Wuhan, China. Patients Services (aka TDHHS) via a daily call and with COVID 19- have mild to severe are monitoring Centers for Disease respiratory illness with symptoms of Control recommendations as the days cough, fever, and shortness of breath. continue. They say GRMC is actively Some patients develop pneumonia and a partnering with local emergency small amount of these patients have fatal responders and STRAC (South Texas cases. Regional Advisory Council) on emergency preparedness in addition to Next, has anyone local tested positive communicating with the local medical for COVID-19? As of today, Monday, community. They say GRMC is ready to March 16, there are no confirmed cases of activate emergency response measures if COVID-19 in Seguin or Guadalupe necessary. See GRMC, page 2
