AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Saying "we've got to do more," Austin's top health official Wednesday urged Austinites to take the coronavirus seriously this holiday season.
Travis County interim health authority Dr. Mark Escott and other leaders from Austin Public Health held their weekly media availability Wednesday, one day after Travis County reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in a single day since mid-July.
"We've seen the results of the Thanksgiving effect on COVID-19," Escott said. "Now we're in the phase of seeing infection spread by those who were infected during Thanksgiving, and the potential for Christmas to accelerate the growth in a number of cases and hospitalizations is serious."
Escott warned that if current trends continue, the load on local hospitals will overwhelm available capacity - a situation that could easily turn into a surge in cases similar to El Paso, if behavior doesn't change.
The virus "doesn't stop by magic," Escott said. "We can't will it away. We have to individually take responsibility and protect ourselves so that we can protect our community. The vaccine is here. We have the ability to prevent disease. We have the ability to prevent deaths through vaccination. Now is the time where we need to buckle down and not only push the positivity and the cases down, we need to push them down to zero."
In addition to residents limiting themselves to only essential trips, Escott said the community needs to consider virtual options for religious services.
"I've been going to church virtually since the beginning of the pandemic and it's not the same," Escott said. "It's not the same as celebrating with your faith community. But we have to realize that our situation right now is not the same as it was a year ago and that gatherings of individuals, particularly in close proximity for longer than 15 minutes, which is every church service."
As a potential move to Stage 5 remains on the horizon, Escott said officials are also looking at reducing risks in schools.
"The primary concern relayed to risk in schools, particularly as we look at the possibility of entering Stage 5, is extracurricular activities," Escott said. "By and large, that is where we’re seeing disease spread. Extracurricular activities on campus as well as when those student athletes, dance team, cheerleaders are practicing outside the school environment in private gyms. So if we hit Stage 5, we’re going to ask them to decrease that risk. We’re going to ask them to stop extracurricular activities, and if they can’t stop them to significantly scale back."
Escott said another major contributor to virus spread right now is the number of bars operating as restaurants under the state's guidelines. Despite the re-classification, the bars are still bars - where people are not seated at tables, and are not maintaining proper social distancing.
