Austin Public Health provides coronavirus update before Christmas
Health officials provide an update on the latest COVID-19 data and answer questions from the media.
AUSTIN, Texas - Health officials with Austin Public Health are providing an update on the latest COVID-19 numbers and answering questions from the media.
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The City of Austin and Travis County orders extend existing requirements for face coverings, social distancing and limiting gatherings. The orders also add quarantine requirements the city and county say are consistent with updated Austin Public Health quarantine guidelines.
COVID-19 numbers in Austin-Travis County are up 86% since start of Dec
COVID-19 numbers in Austin-Travis County are up 86% since start of Dec
Austin Public Health officials warned that if numbers continue as they are, a surge in Austin is likely to be devastating.
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Public Health officials say that by the end of the year, COVID-19 will be the third leading cause of death in Travis County.
While vaccines are being administered, officials say it is not enough to stop or slow down any surges, or spikes, that will come from holiday gatherings. It s going to take some time to have enough vaccine to cover enough of our community to achieve that herd immunity, said Cassandra DeLeon, Interim APH Assistant Director.
Caution urged as 422 new COVID-19 cases reported in Travis County
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Travis County continued to rise Sunday as the county teeters on the verge of entering Stage 5 restrictions.
According to Austin Public Health, 422 new COVID-19 cases were reported Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Travis County to 45,492. There were no COVID-19 deaths reported Sunday, keeping the county s toll unchanged at 516.
The 7-day average of new cases is up to 436, the highest since July 16.
Statewide, the number of cases jumped 6,244 to 1,404,675. One-hundred-twenty-two new fatalities were reported Sunday, bringing the state s total COVID-19 death count to 25,348.
American-Statesman Editorial Board
This week brought the most dramatic split-screen moment in Central Texas since the coronavirus pandemic began: The first doses of a long-awaited vaccine went into the arms of health care workers, who likened the moment to Christmas, while health officials warned that surging COVID-19 cases could overwhelm Austin hospitals in just a few weeks.
Meaning, with limited staffing and supplies, doctors might soon face agonizing decisions over who gets life-saving care and who doesn’t.
Other Texas communities have shown us what desperation looks like. Rows of refrigerated trucks in El Paso holding the bodies of the dead. The main hospital in Odessa full, even after adding overflow units and converting a neonatal ICU into a COVID ward. The grim warnings this summer in Starr County, where the county judge said the COVID-swamped hospital had to choose who is sent home to die.
Christmas travel week is upon us but coronavirus cases continue to surge in Texas and across the country. Despite news of vaccines being distributed, local and national health officials are strongly making the same plea: Postpone travel and stay home to best protect yourself and others from getting or spreading the virus.
Many families must have tough conversations and uninvite people from any year-end large gatherings. They re “an unsafe thing that can have real consequences,” Dr. Sarmistha Hauger, infectious disease specialist at Dell Children s Medical Center of Central Texas, told the American-Statesman earlier this year. “There are so many clusters that have been implicated with large groups.”