AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin health leaders continue to be cautiously optimistic about a plateau and the beginning of a downward trend in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Austin Public Health leaders held their weekly COVID-19 media availability Wednesday morning.
"We've seen some positive trends associated with COVID-19," Escott said. "We're seeing a plateau and a trend towards a decrease in the number of new cases, we've seen a plateau and a trend towards a decrease in the number of new admissions to the hospital, and these are refreshing things. This is evidence of the community working together against COVID-19, but now's not the time to let up."
"Social distancing is here and it's going to be here for a while. Masking is here and it's going to be here for a while," Escott said.
Escott said the fight against COVID-19 isn't over. "Now's the time to dig deep to ensure that we are continuing those protective behaviors, we are continuing to decrease our trips outside of home, we are improving our protective efforts at masking, social distancing, at the personal hygiene and hand washing and avoiding touching your face, and we really need to focus on that right now because we want to get kids back to school."
To be in the best position to send students back into the classroom, Escott said, the area needs to be at least back in Stage 3 of APH's risk-based guidelines. That would mean a 7-day moving average of less than 40 hospitalizations. Escott said he'd prefer to see the area back in Stage 2 - with less than 10 new hospitalizations daily.
As far as the alternate care site at the Austin Convention Center, Escott said the hope is that not a single patient will be transferred there. "That ACS serves as a buffer, in case we overshoot, in case we don't have enough capacity, so there's no indication right at the moment that the hospitals will need to transfer patients to that facility," Escott said.
APH Director Stephanie Hayden said that staffing will be available, with a request made to the Texas Department of Emergency Management. Staffing for the site, if needed, could also come from local doctors from the Travis County Medical Society.
"Our hospitals are doing well," Escott said. "They've got space still, at all levels of the hospital, but they're strained. The personnel are strained, they're tired, and our hope is that through the continued efforts of the community we can continue to decrease that burden."
Tuesday's report from APH saw 603 new cases, after several days of significantly lower new cases. Escott said it's possible that spike was just a backlog of reports from the weekend. If the area doesn't see a continued increase this week, it would be safe to say that the Austin area avoided a surge of new cases from the Fourth of July holiday.