AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin-area leaders are sounding the alarm on recent spikes with COVID-19, saying this is our "blinking yellow light warning moment."
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, and Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott spoke Thursday morning, after three days of record new numbers of cases of the disease have been reported.
"This is a real surge that is happening and, again, not a surge that is out of control yet. We’re still in a stage where we can keep it under control, but that’s going to take community action," Escott said.
Adler reminded everyone about the city's five stage risk guidelines, which are currently in stage 3. As long as the 7-day average of new hospitalizations stays below 20, Adler said, officials are confident area hospitals won't be overwhelmed. As of Wednesday evening, the average stands at 13.
"This is a blinking yellow light warning moment," Adler said. "It’s still early and we still have the opportunity to be able to get a handle on this but it is going to take the entire community being really disciplined and really diligent."
Adler and Eckhardt, who is now serving as a special assistant to acting Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe, both indicated the current "Stay Home, Work Safe" orders will likely be extended when they expire on June 15, in largely the same form they are now.
Eckhardt said that while the state's orders remove a lot of potential enforcement tools, wearing masks and staying socially distant are still necessary to slow the spread of the disease - saying business as usual is "not scientifically possible in a pandemic."
Escott dismissed the tendency for some to politicize the issue. "What we’re really trying to say is that we’re being sold that we have to be polar on this issue — we either have to care about public health or the economy, but we can’t care about both — and that is simply not the case. I don’t talk about politics a lot, but you’re hearing this from a Republican doctor working for a Democratic city council and commissioners court: this is not a political issue. This is science, and we have to be serious about this."