AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Travis County is seeing a downward trend of new coronavirus cases, but Dr. Mark Escott said it's too early for Austinites to let their guard down.
Escott gave an update Tuesday morning to the Travis County Commissioners' Court on the virus. He said the 7-day moving average of new cases are on a downward trend, hospitalizations have appeared to level off, and the doubling time of new cases - now at 42 days - is back to one of its best marks.
"We are certainly hopeful that that trend continues," Escott said.
Escott also pointed out the San Antonio area, which has seen a significant jump in the past two weeks. "Our neighbors in San Antonio are seeing an uptick related to the July 4th holiday," Escott said, saying officials are anxiously awaiting this week's results for Travis County to see if we will see a similar increase.
Austin Public Health testing sites conducted more than 6,000 tests between July 14 and July 20. The overall positivity rate is 7.54%, with Hispanics continuing to see a higher positivity rate at 13.51%.
Escott said continued protective actions are needed for at least the next month. "The focus now is on getting us to a better situation to opening schools, one that is not going to lead to immediate outbreaks," Escott said.
The decision on opening up schools, Escott said, needs to be based on risk. "If we're going to take risks, those risks have to be very small," Escott said, with a focus on those students that really must be in a classroom for in-person learning, and then dialing it up from there.