AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Efforts to activate an alternate care site for COVID-19 patients at the Austin Convention Center may get underway in the next few days, Austin Public Health officials said Wednesday.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin and Travis County, and other officials held their weekly media briefing Wednesday morning.
"It seems pretty clear to us that we will run out of hospital beds," Escott said. "There’s a phased-based approach to surge in our hospitals, and then out of hospitals and into alternate care sites."
Despite the projections, Escott said the models are just a forecast - they're not set in stone, and the numbers can change if people continue the preventative measures that officials have been promoting since the beginning of the pandemic, including wearing a mask, and washing or sanitizing hands frequently.
One thing Escott emphasized is that although vaccines are becoming available, they won't help much with the current surge the area faces. "We can’t vaccinate ourselves out of this surge," Escott said. "This is going to require all of us to change our behaviors."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
