With the pandemic in decline, local COVID task force disbands View Comments After more than a year of using data to project COVID-19 trends in the region, the Coastal Bend COVID Task Force recently disbanded — another shift by officials as the pandemic ramps down. In March 2020, Corpus Christi city officials approached Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi about tracking regional data and modeling projections of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The task force was composed of university faculty and students, as well as city and county officials. The Coastal Bend comprises 12 counties, of which Nueces is the largest. Chris Bird, a marine biologist and associate professor at TAMU-CC, was tasked with presenting the group’s findings during Corpus Christi and Nueces County’s regular COVID-19 briefings, which were livestreamed on social media. Those briefings were canceled in late May.