Money Jab: UTRGV offers COVID-19 booster incentive

UTRGV reported 112 new COVID-19 cases between Jan. 14 and 20, according to a university official.

Doug Arney, vice president for Administrative Support Services and chair of the Infectious Disease Committee at UTRGV, said among the 112 were 27 students, 74 staff and 11 faculty members.

UTRGV updates the number of cases reported for campus individuals weekly through the Confirmed Cases Dashboard. The university COVID-19 Response Team provides the numbers on the website.

Arney said eight of the 27 students were quarantined in on-campus isolation housing the week of Jan. 14 to 20.

 In an email sent Jan. 21, UTRGV announced a $1oo incentive for students who receive their booster shot.

In order to qualify for the incentive, students must:

–receive the booster by April 8,

–update the UTRGV Vaccine Portal with the date they received the booster

–and upload their updated vaccine card.

According to the UTRGV website, the money will be deposited into their bank account or sent by mail.

To receive a booster shot, members of the university community can request an appointment via the UTRGV Vaccine Portal or call UT Health RGV Student Health locations directly at 665-2511 for Edinburg and 882-3896 for Brownsville.

For instructions on how to make an appointment at a campus location, visit utrgv.edu/vaccine.

The university plans to provide UT Health RGV pop-up booster events.

For information and updates about future pop-up events, go to link.utrgv.edu/booster-incentive.

In Hidalgo and Cameron counties, COVID-19 cases continue to increase.

Hidalgo County reported an additional 2,070 cases between Jan. 20 and 27, raising its total to 130,248, according to its website.

The county reported 40 additional deaths between Jan. 20 and 27, raising its death toll to 3,600.

Cameron County reported an additional 6,388 cases between Jan. 20 and 26, raising its total to 66,493 cases.

The county reported 19 additional deaths between Jan. 20 and 26, raising the county’s death toll to 2,060.

Esmeralda Guajardo, the health administrator for Cameron County, said the Omicron variant is the biggest factor in growing case numbers.

“Omicron is just so infectious,” Guajardo said. “It’s getting anyone regardless of vaccination status. So, automatically, that pretty much leads us back to square one.”

Social activity and in-person gatherings over the holidays also play a possible role in the increase of numbers, she said.

“[There are] a lot of barbecues, a lot of parties, people getting together,” Guajardo said. “So, anytime that happens, obviously, that’s going to increase the risk and increase the numbers.”

She said the county started to report probable cases in addition to confirmed cases because “a lot of facilities” send in rapid testing results as opposed to PCR results.

“They’re not sending off the PCR,” Guajardo said. “It’s, you know, ‘You’re symptomatic, you test positive with an antigen. We’re going to assume that you’re positive,’ and it stays there. And, so, we were starting to see a huge increase in the number of antigens, [so,] we felt like it was time for us to start sharing those numbers.”

She said 81.49% of people are fully vaccinated in Cameron County, and 99.99% are partially vaccinated.

“People question how [is it] possible that everyone would be partially vaccinated,” Guajardo said. “People need to consider one: the numbers.

“The denominator that we’re looking at in terms of population is based on the U.S. census. … So, you have that factor that that number is off a bit. … Even though it’s off, I’m very confident about our vaccination rates, that they’re higher.”

Cameron County Public Health officials are asking that individuals report their at-home test results, she said.

“My concern is that data [is] not going to be reflected in our [reports],” Guajardo said. “And, so, we’re asking the public just to report it, just so that we can share that information with the public because we don’t want [people] to let their guard down.”

Residents of Cameron County can report both negative and positive test results at Coronavirus – Cameron County Public Health.