Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick leads the Regional Operations Center (ROC), which has gone over two weeks without a public briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the six-county region it oversees.
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick leads the Regional Operations Center (ROC), which has gone over two weeks without a public briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the six-county region it oversees.
BEAUMONT – While the Regional Operations Center (ROC) has gone over two weeks without a public briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the six-county region it oversees, other municipal entities have continued regular updates with localized figures.
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick leads the ROC, and since his return March 26 from a work-at-home quarantine due to potential exposure to the coronavirus, regular public briefings have ceased.
Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel had been giving the updates in Branick’s absence, but said he was only told that when Branick returned he would decide whether they should continue.
“That’s the right thing to do,” he said, according to reporting by the Beaumont Enterprise. “We’re here in his house. I was notified when he returned, by the (public information officer), that there would be no more Q&As until the judge approved them and I understand.”
Branick told the Enterprise he did not see a point to continuing the briefings at this time.
“In this case, there’s not much we can do except run our test site and screening site and try to communicate information we get about coronavirus symptoms to the public and try to urge the public to social distance,” he said. “I don’t know how a Q&A would help the media with information right now.”
For Hardin County, McDaniel continues to provide numbers via the county’s emergency management website. As of April 19, Texas reported 18,923 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 477 deaths. Hardin County has 73 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
In Orange County, the number of individuals recovered has been added to the figures of negative, active and pending cases that are regularly posted. Orange County has 49 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
For Beaumont, Mayor Becky Ames has begun releasing her own set of updated numbers for the local area, and she said she is doing so in response to requests from the public for that information. She also continues to provide a regular Facebook Live update.
Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie recently held a news conference, which is something he said he wants to make a weekly event.
“The citizens have requested that I provide information,” he said. “They want stuff every day but sometimes there’s not pertinent information every day.”
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