TodayKerrville

 

A second patient at the Kerrville State Hospital has died from COVID-19, while the situation at Kerrville' Brookdale Guadalupe River Plaza nursing home came into focus with time-delayed data released by Texas Health and Human Services.  While Peterson Health is not reporting new data on Thursday — due to the New Year's holiday — the state released information that showed a death at the Kerrville State Hospital on Tuesday. That marks the 24th death in Kerr County this month and the 64th death during the coronavirus pandemic.  On Wednesday, social media posts began to emerge of an outbreak at Brookdale Guadalupe — a nursing home and assisted living facility. Texas Health and Human Services will not confirm current outbreaks, data released on Thursday showed that three employees tested positive for the virus on Dec. 17. In previous outbreaks at Kerrville area nursing homes and assisted living centers, employee outbreaks led to the spread to patients and residents.  During the pand

Peterson Health confirmed that one person died on Wednesday from COVID-19, while 22 people tested positive for the virus.  This latest death is estimated to be the 23rd from Kerr County in December and the 63rd during the coronavirus pandemic. The death is Peterson's seventh this month and 13th since Sept. 29.  Peterson Regional Medical Center had 31 people hospitalized with the virus on Wednesday.  During Monday's Kerr County Commissioner's Court meeting, Peterson Health President and CEO Cory Edmondson made a key point, which had previously not been reported, that the state of Texas only considers 88 of the hospital's 124 beds to be fully staffed when it comes to COVID-19 care. The difference is that 26 beds are reserved for rehabilitation, while the remaining 12 can be held as a reserve. Peterson has converted some of those beds to free up capacity. However, it also means that the hospital's percentage of COVID-19 cases is higher than previously reported.  Earlie

A woman donates clothes to Brenda Hughes on Tuesday to help a family that lost their home in a Center Point fire on Sunday. When Brenda Hughes heard the news that one of her employees had lost their home in a fire on Sunday, she sprang into action and she may have just found a new cause to carry onto the Kerrville City Council.  The Walters family lost everything in a fast-moving fire that destroyed their Center Point home on Sunday afternoon. Ray Walters, the patriarch of the family of five, works at Buzzie's Bar-B-Q, which Hughes owns with her husband, Buzzie. He only started working at the Schreiner Street barbecue institution earlier this year, but he's garnered plenty of support from the family.  "They don't even have a nail clipper left," said Brenda Hughes about the family's plight in the aftermath of the fire.  So, Hughes turned to Facebook — along with her network of allies at Kerrville Pets Alive! and other organizations — to lead a drive of just abo

Public health experts knew it was coming — a gigantic surge of coronavirus cases due to the Christmas break — but what happened in Texas on Tuesday was stunning.   On the day, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 30,000 new cases, including 4,000 probable cases. On Tuesday, Texas hospitals initially reported that there were 23,000 people admitted for COVID-19, but that changed later in the day with the state walking back that number to 11,775 — still a record. The state had more than 600 intensive care unit beds.  By 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the DSHS was still updating its website but the truth that COVID-19 was fully raging in Texas was clear.  In Kerr County, DSHS also reported another death —this one from Dec. 23. Coupled with a third death at the Villagio of Kerrville assisted living center on Dec. 15, Kerr County's death toll is estimated to be 62, including 22 deaths in December. 

The surge of coronavirus cases in Kerr County continued unabated as the region heads toward a long New Year's weekend with 40 new COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday by Peterson Health, and an assisted living center reported its third death this month.  The virus, which has now claimed the lives of an estimated 61 people from Kerr County, has infected more than 700 people in the county in December. Peterson Regional Medical Center saw its COVID-19 patient count fall from a high of 32 on Monday morning to 29 on Tuesday afternoon. The hospital has now had a minimum of 40 people admitted for COVID-19 in December — the number could be far higher.  Since Nov. 30, COVID-19 care at Peterson Regional Medical Center has accounted for 411 days. The last time that the hospital had less than 10 COVID-19 patients was on Nov. 8 — with eight.  In data released by Texas Health and Human Services on Tuesday, the situation at Villagio of Kerrville — an Alpine Drive assisted living center — had intens

The federal Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help small businesses navigate the coronavirus pandemic, and the program poured more than $30 million into Kerr County earlier this year.  In turn, that program helped save more than 3,500 jobs at the 827 small Kerr County businesses that received forgivable loans of $150,000 or less. Most of these businesses employ less than 30 people — many are sole proprietorships.  In Kerrville, 51 businesses received loans of more than $100,000. The smallest amount received was $527. The largest recipients of the loans were those receiving between $21,000 and $99,000 — 49% of all loans.  There was another 322 that received $20,000 or less from the program.  Gil Salinas, the chief operating officer of the Kerr Economic Development Corp., said the PPP was a key tool in helping save lots of jobs and small businesses.  "That program did what it was supposed to do," said Salinas, adding that the program was not without controversy — most