Mega Doctor News

EDINBURG – In the latest sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving into an endemic, the Hidalgo County Department of Health and Human Services will discontinue its three-year-long practice of releasing to the media and the public the latest numbers of those infected or who have perished because of the disease.

The move by the health department comes in response to new guidelines provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services, which has advised counties statewide that they no longer must provide COVID-19 data to the state.

“Hidalgo County will continue to track COVID cases as it does with the flu and other transmissible diseases,” said Eduardo Olivarez, chief administrative officer for the Department of Health and Human Services. “But because of the new state guidelines, we will no longer be issuing our weekly news releases with an update of these numbers. This is another sign that COVID is considered more endemic than pandemic, which means it is a disease that will continue to be with us, but one that health officials are in a better position to treat because of newly developed vaccines and treatment protocols that did not exist when the pandemic emerged.”

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