AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin is now in Stage 4 of its risk-based guidelines for COVID-19, prompting city and county leaders to issue an extension of their local prevention orders through August 15.
Since unveiling the risk-based guidelines back in May, local leaders have emphasized the 7-day moving average of new hospitalizations as a key metric. For the first time Sunday, that metric jumped above the Stage 4 threshold of 20, and will likely continue to rise this week. Just on Sunday alone, 30 patients were hospitalized across the five county metro area.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin-Travis County, said right now area hospitals are in good shape. "We're not talking to you today because we're concerned that there's an impending threat in the next week or two weeks that our hospitals are going to be overrun," Escott said. "The conversation today is a concern about what is three or four or five weeks into the future. The conversation today is about behavior change - what we can do as a community to flatten this curve again."
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he felt the community reached this point sooner than he thought it would, noting that the virus continues to disproportionately affect people over the age of 65, people with underlying health conditions, and communities of color.
"On our current path more people are going to get sick and die than what would happen if we maintain social distancing and wear masks," Adler said. "We each need to pause, think deeply and then decide what is important to us. We will demonstrate what we value by how we act."
City of Austin's new orderTravis County's new order
While the extended orders encourage continuing behaviors that helped Austin flatten the curve early on, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has stripped local jurisdictions of their ability to enforce any requirements.
"I'm going to be completely straight with you all," Eckhardt said. "The Mayor and I, and Judge Biscoe, completely recognize that the Governor of the State of Texas has taken away from us enforcement authority to put into place adaptive measures that have proven to be effective in COVID-19, and the Governor has also shown every intention of getting back to business as usual, irrespective of the facts that we just heard from Dr. Escott. But we know our community, and we know that we, in Austin, in Travis County... are ready, willing, and able to make the adaptations necessary to keep our co-workers safe, to keep our neighbors and to keep our families healthy, and that we will do what's necessary to safeguard our community."
The new orders "strongly encourage" re-opened businesses to operate indoor spaces at 25 percent capacity or less for as long as the city remains in Stage 4. Stage 4 also advises higher risk individuals (those over 65 and those with underlying health conditions) to avoid gatherings of more than two people, and to avoid going out unless absolutely necessary. Lower risk individuals should avoid gatherings with more than 10 people.