COVID-19 update
Travis County saw a slight drop in its total number of hospitalized coronavirus patients. That is now down to 136; the lowest number we’ve seen in many weeks. ICU beds and ventilator usage also fell, albeit a bit more slowly than the overall number of hospitalizations. To continue the good news, the gap between total confirmed cases and recoveries is continuing to narrow. Of the 26,516 cases found since March, 25,381 are recoveries.
As the battle against coronavirus continues, even local leaders are beginning to change their tone. By the number, Austin Mayor Steve Adler says averages are trending down. Hospitalizations are at 152. 56 people are in the ICU and 35 of those are on ventilators. Adler says the real time numbers are even better than that.
“136 in our hospitals. 51 in our ICUs. 30 people on ventilators. That means we continue to move down, which is a good thing,” Adler says.
This means the city is moving deeper into stage three on the COVID risk chart. Alder says there is still no room for easing more, especially with Labor Day weekend coming up.
A steep decline in active COVID-19 cases continues in Williamson County. That number has now fallen to 124. That’s 122 less than the same time a day ago. 76 of those cases involve someone currently hospitalized. The rate of new infections appears to have now dipped below 5%. 7,949 cases have been confirmed and 7,702 of those are recoveries.
COVID-19 emergency hospital never used
Austin’s COVID-19 field hospital in the convention center cost you, the taxpayer, a pretty penny. According to CBS Austin, the city spent $1.3 million to set up that alternate care site. It wasn’t by a single patient. 100 beds were set up in July under the expectation that we would run out of room for people in traditional hospitals. However, that never happened.
Tensions rise between parents and schools
Tensions rise in a meeting of the Lake Travis School Board as parents debate a plan to phase kids back onto campuses. Many of them say their child can’t properly learn behind a computer screen with no teacher interaction.
“He can’t do it anymore. He doesn’t connect. You can’t connect on a Chromebook,” says a local parent.
The board has approved the TEA waiver allowing four more weeks of online learning for many students. Some pre-K to ninth grade kids can begin to return on September 8th, one week from today. Most others will have to wait until after September 21 if they’ve already previously chosen the in person option.
Mail-in voting
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a full day fighting democrats efforts to advance mail-in voting. After fighting to block the Texas Democratic Parties Federal Challenge to allow all Texans to vote by mail, Paxton’s office then filed a suit in Harris County. It was to stop their clerk Chris Hollins, from sending out vote-by-mail applications to 2.4 million registered voters.
“We encourage you to make your own health assessment to determine if you qualify to vote by mail.” Paxton’s message was quite different, though. “The Harris County clerk decided to knowingly violate election laws by preparing to send over two million about applications to Texans who do not even qualify,” says Paxton’s spokesman, Alejandro Garcia.
Hotel bookings still down
With the Labor Day weekend on the horizon, the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s new report shows a lot of people still are not ready to book a hotel room. Nationally, bookings are still down by 66% compared to where they were a year ago. Locally, bookings are down by more than 43% from one year ago.
Cap Metro police force
As the Austin City Council continues its efforts to minimize the role of police officers across the city, Capital Metro is eyeing a plan to create its own police department. The agency security director Darryl Jamail tells KVUE it would give Cap Metro jurisdiction across the entire region.
“APD officers are not able to take enforcement action outside the city of Austin unless it’s in very limited types of situations, and that would give us complete coverage throughout the system,” says Jamail.
This wouldn’t happen immediately. Cap Metro still needs to consider budgets and timelines. After that, it also has to gain legislative approval.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-9-1-20
