Covid-19

Fayette County officials began offering free in-home coronavirus testing on November 16. Funding was provided by a private grant will allow residents to be tested for COVID-19 without having to leave their homes.

“We know we have some citizens who are hesitant to get tested in a public setting and we have some who are unable to get to testing sites. In an effort to assist anyone who wants to get tested, but prefers to do so at home, we will bring the test to them,” said Craig Moreau, Chief of Emergency Management for the Fayette County.

The latest COVID numbers provided by county officials show a big jump in the number of probable cases here. Last week there were 25 active and 30 probable cases.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Fayette County had 19 active and 35 probable COVID cases, among the highest levels we’ve had in weeks. Fayette County, and most of the rest of the state of Texas, is still officially under the mask ordinance issued by Governor Greg Abbott back in July that requires “every person in Texas shall wear a face covering over the nose and mouth when inside a commercial entity or other building or space open to the public, or when in an outdoor public space, wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household.” A whole host of exemptions apply, however, including when eating, voting, going to church, if under 10 years old, etc.

A week ago Fayette County had 12 active and 12 probable cases of COVID. As of Monday morning, those numbers had really increased with 25 active cases and 30 probable cases being reported by Fayette County officials including a 13th fatality.

Don't take off your face masks just yet.

Fayette County Judge Joe Weber announced this afternoon, Friday, Oct. 16, that the Texas Department of Emergency Management has granted Fayette County an exemption to Governor Greg Abbott's statewide face covering mandate. The exemption allows Weber to lift the mask order, but he has not yet done so.

Weber said he intends to lift the mandate if the number of active coronavirus cases stays "manageable" in Fayette County.

Weber released the following statement shortly after 4 p.m. on Friday:

According to Fayette County officials, there were 27 active cases and 11 probable cases in the county as of Monday morning. That’s down three active cases from last Wednesday when there were 30 active cases here. According to county officials there have been 10 deaths here attributed to COV- ID since the pandemic began.

The number of active COVID cases continues to creep back up in Fayette County. As of Sunday night, county officials were reporting 40 confirmed active cases here along with 14 probable cases.