As vaccinations create some light at the end of the tunnel for a return to normalcy, the Payne Arena in Hidalgo is preparing to hold the first major concert in the Rio Grande Valley since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the region in March 2020, hosting Snoop Dogg on July 3.

The multi-platinum artist and rap icon last performed in the Payne Arena back in 2019 during his Puff Puff Pass tour and will return for another tour promoting his new album, From tha Streets 2 tha Suites.

The concert will see a mix of genres as Snoop will be performing on the mic as well as manning the turntables under the moniker, DJ Snoopadelic.

However, local officials still harbor concerns regarding COVID-19, specifically with the concert being held in an indoor arena with a capacity of 6,800.

“We still have over 120 people in the hospital every single day,” Hidalgo County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez said Wednesday. “People don’t understand that the last six or several weeks we haven’t been able to get lower than 110 or 100 so it’s still a real issue.”

Hospitals in the county still hold about 10% of patients who are COVID positive.

There have also been instances where fully vaccinated residents have been infected with the virus, a reminder that the vaccines are 90-95% effective against transmission.

It’s estimated that as many as 350,000 people have been vaccinated so far in Hidalgo County which has a population of over 870,000.

Melendez noticed that newer cases of infection are among the younger population, who are at a higher risk due to them being less likely to die of the virus, therefore least likely to vaccinate, but are still prone to spreading COVID.

Variants of the virus are also a cause for concern as some have grown to be resistant to the monoclonal antibody, which was being used as a method to combat the virus but is now unauthorized to use alone as it has been deemed ineffective.

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez pointed to other areas of the world where infection cases are rising as examples.

“Our numbers are coming down but as we know, Japan, India and other areas are seeing an escalation,” Judge Cortez said. “We know that this down trend is sometimes not permanent, it can very easily come back up.

“We have to continuously move forward cautiously.”

July 3 is still a little less than two months away so the outlook can change over time.

“It could be that in two months the numbers can continue to improve but our numbers have stagnated,” Melendez said. “Here in Hidalgo County, our hospitalized numbers never went down the way we wanted them to go.”

Details about whether COVID-19 protocols will be in place for the concert were unavailable as of press time Wednesday, and attempts to reach Payne Arena General Manager Eric Treviño were also unsuccessful.


[email protected]