TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — The arrival of the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Texas was celebrated Monday, but that celebration was tempered somewhat but the fact that the state remains in a virus surge.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, citing Dr. Mark Escott, Austin Public Health interim authority, said the Austin-Travis County region is headed in the direction of Stage 5 on the list of public health guidelines.
“Our community has now suffered over 500 COVID-19 deaths. At this rate, in just several days, this pandemic will be the third leading cause of death in our community. This is a serious virus,” Adler wrote.
Austin-Travis County is currently in Stage 4. Under Stage 5 guidelines, it is suggested that only essential businesses remain open and that everyone avoids non-essential travel and gatherings involving people outside of those in a person’s immediate household. Those recommendations are in addition to social distancing measures such as avoiding the sick, wearing a facial covering, and maintaining distance from others.
Specifically, Alder said the jump to Stage 5 would be triggered if the region exceeds 50 daily hospitalizations over a seven-day period, which it is rapidly approaching.
“County Judge Brown, Dr. Escott and I have not finalized what rules and guidelines would apply in Red – Risk Level 5. We know our community will be asked to be really serious about our commitments to wear masks whenever/wherever around people not in your household and to avoid significant gatherings. Mask and Social Distance,” Adler wrote. “Dr. Escott will be looking at bars (operating under the Governor’s “restaurant” exception) as a particular concern to see if there are practices that could make them less unsafe.”
Adler additionally warned that there is risk of Austin-Travis County exceeding ICU capacity, writing, “We’re able to staff about 200 ICU beds for COVID-19 patients. We only have about 90 in our ICUs today (but we were at 79 just the day before), so we have present capacity. But the person who shows up in our ICUs in two weeks is someone that probably is getting infected about now. Our ICU numbers will continue to rise for two weeks or so even after we change behaviors.”