With the prospect of throngs from throughout the globe gathering in individual for the South by Southwest festivals for the primary time since 2019, native well being leaders are urging attendees to play it secure as Austin hopes to quickly attain pandemic file lows in COVID-19 hospitalizations and circumstances.
Austin Public Well being on Friday reported a rolling seven-day common of 12 new day by day hospital admissions, a quantity that helps Austin Public Well being decide its risk-based tips. This common was a slight enhance from 10 recorded earlier this week.
Austin Public Well being’s tips vary from Stage 1, when the group is on the lowest danger of catching the virus, to Stage 5, when residents are most in danger. The bottom common Austin has reached because the pandemic hit Central Texas is 7, again in June 2021.
The Austin space is at present in Stage 2 of the rules, which is when the common stays between 5 and 14.
In an interview with the American-Statesman final week, Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County well being authority, mentioned if SXSW attendees heed her recommendation and put on masks in public when having fun with such audio system as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and artists like Lizzo and Dolly Parton, the realm within the coming weeks may attain a brand new low in coronavirus circumstances and hospitalizations.
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Till two weeks in the past, the group had been in Stage 5 of the rules since Jan. 6 after the omicron variant of the coronavirus fueled a record-breaking surge in circumstances and hospitalizations on the finish of final yr.
The height of the surge occurred in mid-January, when as many as 1 in 3 COVID-19 exams taken by Austin Public Well being have been optimistic.
However by February, the omicron surge started a gradual decline in transmission charges and hospitalizations, main public well being officers to maneuver the Austin space to Stage 4 on Feb. 24. Inside a week, Walkes shifted the realm to Stage 3. Then Stage 2 was introduced final Friday.
The final time the Austin space was in Stage 2 was in the summertime of 2021. However the group didn’t attain the coveted Stage 1 due to the arrival of delta variant, which brought on a surge in circumstances that overwhelmed hospitals beginning in August.
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“I am hopeful,” Walkes mentioned about the potential for getting into Stage 1 this yr. “It actually all will depend on what the group does close to taking these precautions that we have to lower unfold. We’ll simply see what occurs.”
Austin Public Well being on Friday, on the eve of SXSW’s opening weekend, was monitoring 89 individuals within the hospital with COVID-19, down from 99 on Thursday, which was the primary time the Austin space had fewer than 100 hospitalizations for COVID since Dec. 4, 2021, when the affected person rely was 97.
Of these hospitalized, 29 sufferers have been in Austin-area intensive care models. That quantity hit a pandemic file of 237 on Aug. 22 through the delta surge. The 14 sufferers on ventilators remained low in contrast with the pandemic file of 174 set on Aug. 29.
Austin Public Well being and Travis County well being officers reported a complete of 1,444 whole deaths from virus because the begin of the pandemic.
Based on state information, Travis County vaccination charges proceed to enhance. As of Thursday, 83.98% of Travis County residents 5 and older have obtained at the least one dose of vaccine. About 72.56% of county residents 5 and older are totally vaccinated.