County emergency official took Caribbean trip | Alert | seguingazette.com – Seguin Gazette

When he, his wife and friends finally got the chance to take the international trip they’d been planning for years, a Guadalupe County official said they did what was needed to remain safe on the journey amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Patrick Pinder, the county’s emergency management coordinator and fire marshal, is responsible for disseminating information and helping coordinate the local response to the health emergency that has rocked the world. So he knew what was at stake and what he needed to do late last month on his trip to the Dominican Republic.

“Knowing what I know about COVID, I took steps to make sure myself and my family were checked and precautions were taken,” Pinder said.

The emergency manager, his wife and a couple friends planned the trip about three years ago, he said. They had to reschedule multiple times due to hurricanes and other obstacles, Pinder said.

Then last December, before COVID reached the shores of the United States, the group finalized plans to make the trip the day after Thanksgiving this year, he said. As the virus spread and the day of takeoff inched closer, Pinder said he watched the signs.

“After the trip was rescheduled and booked and COVID started coming out, we got information from our travel agent,” he said. “We were aware at one point that the Dominican was not allowing incoming trips.”

But that had all changed by the time they left.

“Prior to the trip, we monitored the Dominican Republic’s COVID numbers,” Pinder said. “We talked with our travel agent. We talked with the airlines, the resorts and made sure travel restrictions were not restricting us from going.”

They did not know of the Centers for Disease Control in the United States issuing any warnings against travel to the Caribbean country, he said.

“The Dominican was not a hot spot when we left,” Pinder said.

He and his group took the trip.

They had temperature checks before they left and when they arrived in the foreign land, Pinder said. At the airport in the Dominican Republic, the whole group was randomly selected to take COVID tests that came back negative, he said.

They wore masks, used hand sanitizer, practiced social distancing and took “all of the necessary recommended precautions,” Pinder said.

“When we came back, obviously, we still followed the same guidelines, we wore masks,” he said. “When we got back to the United States, we self monitored, we isolated at home for four days, no signs or symptoms.

“The plan is to get another COVID test just to make sure.”

Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher said he knew of Pinder’s trip and was not overly concerned because he also knew the emergency manager would do his due diligence and practice extreme caution.

Kutscher asked Pinder if the trip was a wise idea, whether it was a safe choice.

“I know the type of individual Patrick is,” Kutscher said. “He’s always very careful and wants to be safe.”

He trusted Pinder to make safe choices.

“That’s why he’s in that position,” Kutscher said. “He knew what the risks were and he also knew he could be safe in exercising those precautions and still being able to go on this trip.”