News

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau began following up with households nationwide that have not yet responded to the 2020 census. Based on the current Hemphill County self-response rate, the Census Bureau estimates it will need to visit about 1,230 homes in Hemphill County to collect responses in person.

Students across Texas returned to campuses last week as schools and universities scrambled to put into place new lesson plans that best accommodate a pandemic. For many school districts, this meant greatly expanding the technological resources of their students to support a mix of in-person and online education. For example, Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District east of Houston announced plans to buy 16,000 iPads for almost $3.1 million. The Texas Education Agency’s statewide initiative, Operation Connectivity, will pay half the cost. Gov. Greg Abbott also announced the TEA had obtained more than 1 million personal devices and internet WiFi hotspots as part of the initiative. The effort is financed by a previously announced $200 million allocation of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding to the TEA and matched by school districts. It will ensure that students attending a Texas public school will have both a device and connection to the internet throughout the school year and beyond, Abbott said. In other tech-related news last week, Apple became the first U.S. company to be valued at $2 trillion.

Having finally sealed a deal on the purchase of the former Digital Abstract building to house its offices, the water district is trying to prepare a budget for the next fiscal year in the face of a 23 percent decline in property values.

“What a fun puzzle this has been,” Superintendent Lynn Pulliam said, as his trustees—who obviously knew better—began to navigate the real landmines tucked about ankle-deep in last Tuesday evening’s school board agenda.

After learning last week that two Abraham Home employees had tested COVID-positive, the Hemphill County Hospital District is reporting this week that a total of five coronavirus tests of staff and residents at the nursing home have now been confirmed positive. Two of those positive cases are residents, and three others are employees—one from Hemphill and two from another county.

Hemphill County Commissioners met in regular session on Aug. 10, voting on a proposed $0.4433/$100 valuation tax rate for 2020 in support of the 2020-21 fiscal year budget. The proposed rate will raise $2,011,185 less revenue from property taxes from the previous year, a 28.65 percent decrease.

Families of the Edward Abraham Nursing Home were notified this week that two staff members had tested positive for COVID-19. Hemphill County Hospital CEO Christy Francis said the employees, who were identified only as one in-county and one out-of-county resident, were placed on home isolation and their positive test status reported to the state.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) released a report today showing nursing homes in the U.S. have experienced an alarming spike in new COVID cases due to community spread among the general population. The report relied on recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

It is hard to know yet how dramatically changed the medical world will be by the coronavirus pandemic. But the fact that it has changed is undeniable.