Without rapid behavior change, Austin heads for stage 5 shutdown

[TexasTowelie]

After a record number of Covid-19 cases reported over the weekend, the city is urging residents to comply with requirements for social distancing, personal hygiene and wearing masks over the July 4 weekend in an effort to avoid pushing the region into stage 5 (red) of virus spread and requiring a prolonged citywide shutdown.

“The hope is that we can put in place measures to slow transmission that are effective before we get to the point where we have to enact a stricter measure,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, leader of the Covid-19 Modeling Consortium and professor at the University of Texas.

The city has been under a stage 4 (orange) alert for the past two weeks, but the growing surge in both cases and hospitalizations could push the city to the next stage, threatening the area’s total hospital bed and health care personnel capacity as soon as mid-July.

The seven-day moving average hospitalization rate has multiplied by five since June 1 under Gov. Greg Abbott’s containment approach, resulting in an average of 53.4 new admissions as of Monday compared to the average of 10.4 on June 1. With records of 728 cases reported between Friday and Saturday, 636 on Sunday and 508 new cases Monday, Austin Public Health interim Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said Austin is in a “very, very dangerous spot right now,” quickly approaching the stage 5 threshold of an average of 70 daily hospital admissions.



Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2020/06/without-rapid-behavior-change-city-heads-for-stage-5-shutdown/

[gristy]

1. K&R for that excellent graphic

I had not seen that before.

[soothsayer]

2. Do they need me to request a field hospital for them?

Cuz I don’t see the task force springing into action here.

[rzemanfl]

3. Bookmarking for morning. n/t

[LeftInTX]

4. They can't enforce any of this because Abbott won't let them.

We have 1268 new cases in Bexar Co today.

We've got: Masks, closed bars, a phone alert and TP shortages. Businesses are getting stricter about physical distancing again.

[TwistedTinkerbelle]

5. I live in Hood County....

The majority of people here are still pretty sure this just an overblown case of the flu. We jumped from 30+ cases to 98 cases in less than a week, but Hood people know that's all made up...just ask them. Mask wearing doesn't happen among most people under 50 and social distancing is joke. The only 4th related event that has been canceled is the parade. Everything else, a marathon run, shops and vendors on the square open for visitors and a huge fireworks show--is still a go.

This has turned into a full blown unstoppable wildfire and Abbot has been nothing but a bag of gutless rhetoric.