AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Some business capacity restrictions due to COVID-19 could begin to loosen as early as this weekend, based on hospital usage across Central Texas.
Austin Public Health held their weekly media availability on Friday, including interim Austin-Travis County health authority Dr. Mark Escott.
As of Thursday, Trauma Service Area "O" has been below 15% hospitalizations for the past five days. Once the area stays below the 15% threshold for 7 consecutive days, under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive orders, businesses who had to reduce to 50% capacity can return to 75% capacity, and medical providers can resume elective procedures.
Austin was the last metro area across the state to enter surge protocols, and could be the first to come back out, Escott said.
"That’s great for our community," Escott said, "but we need to continue that vigilance in terms of protecting ourselves and continuing masking and distancing."
The alternate care site at the Austin Convention Center has also helped to ease some of the load on area hospitals, with 49 patients there as of Friday morning. So far, all of the patients have been transferred to the ACS from hospitals in the five-county area around Austin, Escott said.
"We haven’t begun to take patients from outside that area," Escott said. "We’ve had an efficient referral process and our hospitals are sending the appropriate people there."
Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard said the vaccine effort is moving along, but it will continue to take time to get to everyone in groups 1A and 1B.
So far, APH has administered more than 28,000 doses of the vaccine. According to Hayden-Howard, those who have received their first dose will be notified 3-5 days before their second dose is due, in order to schedule an appointment for the second dose.
Escott also touched on the positivity rate in the area, especially among school-age children. “The spread is happening in extracurricular activities,” Escott said. “We see clusters associated with soccer, basketball and other athletic activities... dance, cheerleading. We see it in shared transportation, carpools and buses, and kids who are having parties."
