Life in Texas town comes to standstill as COVID runs rampant. ‘Fight for your life’

A small West Texas town is so overwhelmed by COVID-19 that it has practically closed down.

Iraan, population roughly 1,200, has canceled classes, called off football, and shuttered city hall and local businesses, in an effort to rein in the virus running rampant through town, outlets report.

“We had had COVID before but never to this magnitude,” resident Vicky Zapata told CNN.

In a recent Facebook livestream, Zapata tearfully prayed for Iraan. She prayed for her friend Carla and her son, both in quarantine, the outlet reported.

“We ask you God, that you heal our town, Father, from this disease,” Zapata pleaded.

She prayed for Carla’s husband Sammy, laying in an ICU, wracked with sickness, fighting a battle he and his doctors and nurses would lose in a few days’ time.

“Fight for your life,” someone yelled from out of view. “We love you, Sammy.”

In a community with a COVID-19 positivity rate nearing 50%, Sammy was just one of several to fall ill and residents and officials worry, one of many more to come, CNN reported.

“Love your neighbor ... today it could be me, tomorrow it could be you,” Zapata said.

Help is a helicopter ride away

Iraan General Hospital has 14 beds, no ICUs and no ventilators, The Texas Tribune reported. The doctors there are family physicians, not specialists.

Proper COVID-19 care is at least 80 miles away, a helicopter ride to Midland, Odessa or San Angelo, assuming they have room for more patients, hospital administrator Jason Rybolt told the Tribune.

Realistically, Iraan’s hospital isn’t much more than a way station, a place where COVID-19 patients can be stabilized and hopefully kept alive long enough to catch a flight somewhere better equipped, according to the outlet. There’s little else it can do.

So it’s particularly worrying that 50 residents out of 119 tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks, a 42% positivity rate, Rybolt said, outlets reported.

“[I’m] very concerned for the community,” Rybolt told CNN. “Very concerned for trying to make sure that they have the health care that they need.”

School shutdown

With so many students and staff falling ill, or coming into contact with those who are, school has been postponed until it’s determined safe enough to resume.

Last week, the Iraan-Sheffield Independent School District announced it would be closing its K-12 sites until at least Aug. 30, according to a statement released by the district. The quarantine period began Aug. 17.

“We felt … that it was best for the safety and security of our students and staff to go ahead and quarantine,” superintendent Tracy Canter told The Texas Tribune.

Nearly a quarter of the district’s staff was out due to COVID-19, prior to the quarantine, as were 27% of teachers and instructors, and 17% of students, she said. In the first weeks of August, the numbers of infections and possible exposures were already higher than the entire previous year.

“Please ensure that students are truly taking this opportunity to quarantine,” Canter’s letter to parents read. “They should not be out in the community or hanging out with friends. The only way that this will work is if everyone does their part.”

The letter also encouraged wearing masks to help limit the virus’ spread.

School districts across Texas have tried enacting mask rules for students and staff, in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates.

The ban is to ensure students aren’t forced to wear face coverings and that parents have the power to decide what is best for their child, Abbott has said. But as a matter of safety, some districts and parents are demanding enforceable mask policies, as COVID-19 cases rise nationally and locally.