695 hospitalized patients with COVID-19; SAWS working to raise the boiling water warning

SANTO ANTÓNIO – San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff updated the community on the local response to COVID-19 and the winter weather in their Thursday night briefing.

Nirenberg reported that data from the COVID-19 case is not available at this time due to bad weather this week. New cases and death figures are expected on Friday.

The mayor also informed that 695 patients are hospitalized, 257 are in intensive care units and 149 on ventilators.

There have been 69 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours, said Nirenberg.

Wolff and Nirenberg talked about rescheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Wonderland Mall and Alamodome administration sites. Click here to see the latest information for all vaccination sites.

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CPS Power

Nirenberg gave a CPS Energy update to his leadership during the briefing. He said the company has not completely restored power to all customers, but there have been significant improvements in the company’s efforts.

Currently, about 6,000 customers still lack power, mainly due to damaged equipment, said Nirenberg.

CPS Energy’s leadership continues to promote energy conservation to maintain the stability of the power grid across the state.

San Antonio Water System

San Antonio Water System CEO and President Robert Puente joined Nirenberg and Wolff during today’s briefing to update the community on the current water situation.

Puente said that some neighborhoods are still impacted by the lack of water pressure. He said broken pipes in some businesses and other areas have contributed to reducing pressure.

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SAWS is in the process of creating distribution centers for those without water and will also provide bottled water for those who need it. Click here to see the locations of mass water distribution.

Puente said SAWS would help customers with their bills, as water was used to prevent spouts from leaking to prevent pipes from breaking in homes and businesses. Click here to learn more.

The president and CEO says that SAWS is working with the Texas Environmental Quality Commission (TCEQ) to try to waive certain requirements to suspend the boiling water warning. He said there was no line break, no contaminants and that SAWS uses a closed system, so the thing that triggered the warning was the TCEQ regulations on water pressure warnings.

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Puente says that about 20% of the SAWS system has no water and 20% has low pressure. He also said that the pumping stations are fully operational, bringing more pressure to more people.

Deaths in winter weather

Dr Junda Woo, medical director of the Metropolitan Health District, said the city’s health department is working with the coroner’s office to find out how many people died from complications from the winter weather.

Watch all the instructions in the video player above to hear more from city and county leaders.

MOST CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FROM KSAT: