SEPTEMBER 2020
WEATHER
24 THURSDAY
FRIDAY
TODAY
88/64
89/68
SATURDAY
90/71
LEGEND PLUMBING & ROOTER Br Lic # ML-16126 830 • 303 •3335 By o you ht T oug
Volume 55 • Number 180 830 • 379 • 2234
The Voice of Seguin Today
Suspect shatters windows Jump in positive COVID-19 at local businesses cases didn’t happen overnight breakage on businesses. It started down at Guadalupe at Court (streets). We started finding broken windows. We just tracked it all the way down Court Street — alarms just kept coming in. We circled back, and Officer Ryan McCallister remembered seeing somebody out in the middle of the street. He went back and started talking to him. In interviewing him, he admitted to doing it. He was having a bad day. He’s a 30-year old local Seguin man. He’s currently in jail on a felony charge of criminal mischief. We are still trying to identify all the different businesses. We are up to eight right now that have broken windows,” said Nichols.
Guadalupe County explains this week’s sharp increase in cases By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
(Seguin) – Guadalupe County doesn’t want to create panic with its latest report of positive COVID-19 cases. Instead, it wants to explain the significant jump in numbers.
As warned last week, the state has reportedly uncovered cases that never made it into the count Our office here at KWED on East Court for Guadalupe County. Street was among those hit by the suspect early Wednesday morning. During Tuesday’s
By Darren Dunn (Seguin) – Seguin Radio KWED and the Seguin Daily News literally had some breaking news this week. Seguin Police Chief Terry Nichols says they have arrested a man who broke out a number of windows at some local businesses early Wednesday morning. Nichols says the suspect has been identified as Jacob Hernandez Valdez of Seguin. “About two o’clock in the morning, we started getting alarm calls in from glass
Chief Nichols says although burglary did not appear to be his motivation, Valdez did admit to breaking numerous business windows along Court Street from Guadalupe Street to King Street, including City Hall on River Street.
Commissioners Court meeting, Patrick Pinder, the Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator, explained this delay in the numbers.
“When Texas Health Trace took over doing the contact tracing, Valdez was arrested and charged with 1,600 cases were not accounted criminal mischief under $30,000, a state jail for. Finally, when they did their felony. He remains in the Guadalupe County investigations, they determined Jail in lieu of a $20,000 bond. there were 1,600 more cases in Guadalupe County and If you believe your business was also that’s why they added this,” damaged as part of these crimes, you said Pinder. “That goes back to are asked to contact the Seguin Police March 1. Originally, we reported Department at 830-379-2123. our first case the second weekend
Melanie Esqueda 830-221-5688
of Spring Break. We actually had our first case March 1. This is a six-month period. We had 1,601 new cases and out of that 1,601, there’s only 55 active,” said Pinder. Officials say most of these older cases occurred in June and had not previously been reported to the state by health care providers. Although there was a delay, these individuals were still notified about their test results. Pinder says Region 8 continues to review the data in hopes of continuing the accuracy of cases for the county. He says despite what the county’s current report shows, the majority of these cases, again, are no longer considered active. “If you look at the state website today, if you go online to DSHS, they are going to show Guadalupe County has 1,658. I just told you we only have 55. If you look at the recoveries, they are going to show 1,811. We have over 2,000 recovered people. If you look at
the state website, they are going to show 76 deaths, we have 42 reported deaths. Total cases that will be reflected by the state’s website are 3,545,” said Pinder. Last week, Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher shared his frustration with the backlog in numbers including the state’s latest decision to include a TBD or To Be Determined column on its reporting chart. According to the DSHS, the To Be Determined Category is for those that are not symptomatic, have had no epidemiological trace to a positive tested COVID-19 person and have not received a PCR test. Officials say after a review from the state health department, if it is determined the person meets the criteria, they will be moved to the Active category. If it is determined that the person does not meet confirmed criteria, that record will then be removed entirely from the chart. See COVID CASES, page 2