HAYS COUNTY, Texas – Young people aged 20-29 have the highest numbers of positive COVID-19 cases in Hays County with around 50 percent of cases reported from that age group.

In a recent press conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned Hays County’s spike in cases, saying young people under 30 going to “bar-type settings” could be to blame.

Texas State University student Adriana Carter doesn’t disagree, but said don’t be so quick to judge her age group. Carter said many of her friends are having to tend bar or serve at local bars and restaurants, prioritizing their need to make ends meet before their health.

“They say ‘I feel fine, let me go make my money because, yeah, there's this huge number of cases but if I call into work, that's $100-$300 I could be missing out on and I really need that right now.’ We all have bills. Not everyone has their parents who help them out,” Carter said. "If they're working, I want to go help them out as much as I can. I think that's some of our thought processes through all of this anyways. We relate to bartenders and servers having to do this, so let me go out and help the bartenders and servers who are doing it.”

Unfortunately, Carter found herself staring at a positive COVID-19 test result recently. She said after going out for a night of drinking in The Square, she and her roommates tested positive for the coronavirus.

"I even told [my roommates], I was like, ‘You know, I know, [we] probably shouldn't be doing this, but I had a long stressful week. I want to see my friends. I haven't been going out. So I'm going to go out this one time.’ It just so happened that I got coronavirus,” Carter said. 

When she was out at the bars, Carter said hardly anyone was wearing masks and there were lines of people, which she steered clear of. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has started conducting undercover operations to ensure businesses are following protocols to slow the spread of COVID-19. As of June 22, 17 bars across the state had their licenses suspended for not following the requirements.

RELATED | Austin, San Antonio Bars Added to Alcohol Permit Suspension List

“If we felt kind of uncomfortable or too crowded, we promptly moved. Just because obviously nobody's wearing their masks—don't know where all these people have been—we should try to be as safe as we possibly can,” Carter said. "The bartenders weren't wearing masks; the security guys were. But like, if you’re a security guard or like a doorman, you're touching everyone's ID, and, you know, cross contamination. So there wasn't any type of extra [precautions], besides the 50 percent capacity.”

On June 22, face mask requirements went into effect for Hays County and will last for a month. The executive order by County Judge Ruben Becerra requires all people 10 years and older wear face coverings over their noses and mouths businesses and public spaces where physical distancing cannot easily be maintained.

"Because I don’t want to go back into quarantine, and because I don’t want businesses to close again, we’ve got to get used to doing the right thing when we’re out in public,” Becerra said.

Carter said after she’s cleared of the virus, she’s not headed out to The Square anytime soon.

"Oh, my roommates are pretty mad at me so, probably not for a long time,” Carter said.

Carter’s case isn’t uncommon in the area. As of June 22, 54 percent of the overall cases in Hays County are people in their 20s. Of the active cases, about 70 percent are located in the college town of San Marcos.

“We live around all of our friends, we work with all of our friends, we take classes with all of our friends” said Carter. “If one of us has it and goes to a party and we're asymptomatic, who all did we give it to?”

So far, Carter’s been asymptomatic with just some slight fatigue. She wants the public to not be so quick to judge those her age. She said many of her friends are having to choose between taking precautions and keeping their jobs.

“I know one restaurant, they had a busser who was in contact with somebody positive and they said, ‘Well, the likelihood of you getting it probably isn't that big. We can't be shorthanded tonight— we really need you to come in.’ And so it's just like we're having to pick and choose like, ‘Do I get written up for calling into work or do I stay home and save people? I mean, I need this job. I'm a 20-year-old kid.’”

As a Texas State student, Carter is also concerned about physically going back to class. A recent “Roadmap to Return” website was announced detailing plans for students and staff about Summer II and Fall 2020 courses.

The website reads: "Summer II courses (July 6 - August 6) and Fall courses (August 24 - December 11) will be delivered to promote the health and safety of students and faculty and provide high quality learning experiences. Courses may have assignments, lectures, discussions, exams, and other learning activities held face-to-face, online, or in some other delivery mode to meet the educational requirements of the course and maximum room occupancy.”

"I don't necessarily feel safe going just because all these kids coming and traveling, coming back to San Marcos from literally all over the country, maybe even international students,” Carter said. “I don't know where every one of them has been. I don't know if they're asymptomatic or what, but I think like the social distancing and wearing a mask could probably do, obviously, more good."

The bus routes will be modified with reduced seating, rear boarding, and social distancing requirements. Furniture has also been removed in the Alkek Library and common areas of buildings. Face coverings are required indoors and outdoors on the TXST campus unless the student is alone. 

"I understand 100 percent. I get it. I personally think it sucks, but also I'm going to oblige to it because I can only do the best that I can do as a person, you know? I think [distancing] would be really hard in hallways, in between like passing and stuff, or on the buses. How many people are going to be on the buses? How many people are going to be at the bus stop or the bathroom? Like, will they get cleaned every day? There's a lot of different ‘what ifs’ or questions."

District 45 State Representative Erin Zwiener told Spectrum News in a recent interview that she also doesn’t want the blame put on young people.

"I'm a little frustrated with the buck getting passed to young people. Yes, we are seeing disproportionate infection rates among young people, particularly our 20 to 29 cohort. But those are folks who are more likely to have a job that they can't work from home, that's public facing, and high exposure. And they're less likely to be able to afford to not work and those jobs are less likely to offer some type of paid sick benefit for them to stay home when they really should,” Zwiener said

Another hurdle Carter and her age group faces is the uncertainty about where to get tested when uninsured. The good news is the federal government set aside a billion dollars for uninsured coronavirus testing.

For those with insurance, federal laws require that plans cover coronavirus testing in full without applying a deductible or copay. Texas Division of Emergency Management recently held a week of free testing for Hays County residents, with more than a thousand tests performed at the request of Rep. Zwiener.

"We're all college kids. A lot of us are away from home. Where do we go? What do we do? Like should I trust this medical office? Should I go here? Do they take my insurance? How much is it going to cost? I don't have insurance. So I think it's just like a lot of things, you know, you can't really place it on one specific thing obviously because there are just so many different factors going into this,” Carter said.

As for her advice for her fellow twenty-somethings, Carter said to keep being mindful of who you may be spreading the virus to if you’re asymptomatic. If you test positive like she and her roommates did, she said don’t be ashamed of it.

"I think there's a stigma. Plenty of my friends tested positive and they're like, 'Don't tell anybody, I don't want anyone to know. I'm just telling people I come into contact with.' And it's like, it's a sickness, you went out and somebody had it, didn't know or was irresponsible and you have it now and the best you can do is get tested, quarantine yourself,” Carter said. "It’s better to be aware and then work towards keeping yourself safe and preventing that spread than be unaware, and — ‘Oh it’s just coronavirus, I'm 20 years old, I'll be fine.’ You know, it's much more than that. You don't know who you're coming into contact with. What if one of your friends is immunocompromised and just has never told you? Be a 20-year-old, but like, try to do it in the best way possible at this given time."