City of Lubbock Monitoring Novel Coronavirus Outbreak

As of 4:00 p.m. Friday, March 13, 2020, there are no confirmed cases in Lubbock. The case count in Texas is currently 39. Though most are travel-related, some are via community transmission.

On Friday, Governor Abbott declared a State of Disaster covering the state of Texas. This declaration authorizes the use of all necessary state government resources to help manage the COVID-19 situation as well as formally activating the State Operations Center and the state emergency management plan. The City of Lubbock is covered under this declaration. Current City responses and activities are covered under our local emergency plan and sufficient resources are available to address the present situation. The City of Lubbock is prepared to issue a disaster declaration when the local situation dictates or additional resources are required. A local declaration could include specific measures unique to Lubbock regarding mass gatherings and other important matters of public health. 

The City of Lubbock conducted a press conference on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, with updates on the City of Lubbock preparedness efforts.

The City Manager's Office, Office of Emergency Management and Public Safety officials met with Lubbock-Cooper ISD, Lubbock ISD and Frenship ISD on Thursday, March 12, 2020, to discuss and support the ISDs' preparedness efforts in response to COVID-19.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has provided a communications toolkit relative to COVID-19. The toolkit contains graphics for multimedia, social media and print. We encourage the use of the communications toolkit to disseminate key information to the public. This toolkit is available at: https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus/tools.aspx

Effective Monday, March 16, 2020, the City of Lubbock Health Department will expand its telephone contact hours from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m, Monday - Friday schedule to a 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Monday - Friday schedule. The Health Department is adding six additional call takers to assist in answering telephone calls regarding COVID-19. You can reach the Health Department at 806-775-2933.

The City of Lubbock will conduct a news conference on Monday, March 16, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. at Lubbock Fire Rescue Auditorium. This will become a standing news conference that will be conducted each Monday, at 3:00 p.m. until further notice.