AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin Public Health is recommending that middle schools and high schools across Travis County transition to 100% virtual learning for the two weeks following winter break.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Travis County, made the announcement Tuesday during a live presentation with Travis County Judge Andy Brown.
"We're recommending that middle schools and high schools transition to virtual learning for the two weeks following winter break, again, to reduce the community risk and to reduce the risk of transmission within the school system," Escott said. "With the positivity data we're seeing, and the impact on hospitalization admissions and our ICUs, it's time to scale back the risk. Again, the schools have done a great job at mitigating the risk, but as the positivity increases, we can expect if we continue the way we have, that we're going to see an increase in transmission associated with schools, particularly high schools and middle schools."
Escott had indicated the recommendation was under consideration as late as Monday's weekly Q&A event with area media outlets.
The concern, Escott said, continues to be available ICU beds and increasing hospitalizations. "We saw a big jump in ICU use over the past week; now we are more than halfway into our total capacity for ICU utilization for COVID-19 patients," Escott said. "There are more ICU beds than the 200, but once we hit that 200, then it starts to impact our ability to care for other people who need ICUs - that would be people who have heart attacks or strokes, people who are in car accidents or have other traumatic injuries or medical ailments. Certainly the lesson learned from El Paso, and Lubbock, and Abilene, and the other places that have faced a significant surge already, is that once you run out of ICU beds, you run out of ICU beds for everybody."
"We have the space, we have the equipment," Escott continued. "The challenge is the people - the doctors, the nurses, the respiratory technicians, that we need to staff those additional beds. We don't have them, and the challenge is that right now, Dallas and Fort Worth is surging, San Antonio is surging, Houston is surging, and certainly Austin is behind all of them in the magnitude of our surge. That creates significant concern that by the time we exceed capacity, the extra resources - the state resources in particular - will be consumed by those other metropolitan areas that are facing more significant and earlier surge."
In addition to transitioning to virtual learning for the upper grade levels, Escott is also recommending that districts suspend or postpone extracurricular activities when masking and social distancing aren't possible. A final recommendation is that students or staff who either traveled over the winter break, or participated in social gatherings outside of their household are strongly encouraged to quarantine and get tested for COVID-19.
So far, it's not clear if any area districts will follow Escott's recommendation, only saying that no decisions have been made yet.
Escott also said a curfew remains a possibility, especially towards the end of the week. "I think what we're facing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in particular is a risk we simply cannot take right now," Escott said. "We have the projections based on what we're already seeing. If we take individuals who were exposed during Christmas gatherings, and put them in bars on New Year's Eve, and pack them together for hours, the projection is going to be overwhelming, and it's going to happen very very quickly. I do not think we can afford to take that risk. I don't think we have any other choice than to take action to prevent that from happening."
