AUSTIN, Texas – On Tuesday Austin and Travis County officials announced Austin was moving to “Stage 3” on the Austin Public Health (APH) COVID-19 Risk-Based Guidelines.

The scale, which includes a color-coded chart, was announced in May as a way for citizens to visualize what precautions they need to take depending on their risk factor.

Austin is now under a Stage 3, or yellow warning. This means people are still asked to maintain social distancing, wear face coverings, and are asked to avoid non-essential travel.

The main change from the previous stage is for high-risk individuals. Before they were asked to avoid groups of greater than two people, and now it’s recommended they avoid groups of people larger than 10 people.

Those that are not considered high risk are still asked to avoid groups larger than 10 people.

“We are moving to Stage 3 because our key indicators are trending in the right direction,” said Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott in a written statement. “As much as possible, though, we would like individuals to continue to act as if we are still in Stage 4 so that we can be in a better place as school starts.”

City officials say one of the major factors they are looking at for the continued re-opening of the economy is the COVID-19 positivity rate. The number is found by calculating how many people test positive for the virus compared to the total number of people tested.

The goal is to get Austin below 5 percent. According to the city, Austin’s most recent positive rate was 7.6 percent.

“Our goal is to have a positivity rate below 5 percent by September 8, when most Austin-Travis County students start their school year,” said Dr. Escott. “In addition to an overall positivity rate below five percent, every individual race and ethnic group in Austin should have a positivity rate below 5 percent.”