Black leaders in Travis County said they worry that Austin Public Health is not taking the right steps to equitably offer vaccines to residents of color after data released by the agency show some populations are grossly underserved.
The dashboard on Thursday showed that Black residents make up 7.6% of Travis County s total population, but are just 3.4% of Austin Public Health s recipients for the first dose of coronavirus vaccine during the first week in February, the period for the most recent data available.
White residents make up 68.2% of the population and received 65.4% of the vaccine that week; Hispanic residents make up 18.1% and got 17.2% of the vaccine; and Asian residents make up 5.1% and got 7.4% of doses.
Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish received a letter from the Texas Department of State Health Services on Tuesday saying Lubbock and the surrounding counties can ease COVID-19 restrictions as hospital conditions have improved.
City officials announced later that 109 new COVID-19 infections and 143 recoveries. They also announced a 10.83% COVID-19 hospitalization rate for Monday the seventh consecutive day that Lubbock was below the 15% hospitalization threshold.
The new infections raises Lubbock County s total case count to 47,132, with 1,545 cases listed as active and 44,911 listed as recovered.
No deaths were reported Tuesday, which keeps the county s COVID-linked fatalities at 676.
As of Tuesday, 102 people were hospitalized by the disease with 30 patients in the ICU. Officials reported a combined 13 open hospital beds and 23 patients holding for beds at University Medical Center and Covenant Health System.
WilCo Bars Allowed To Reopen Amid Lowered Coronavirus Rates - Cedar Park-Leander, TX - County Judge Bill Gravell secured permission for bars to reopen after being alerted of a sustained drop in coronavirus hospitalizations.