COVID-19 update
Travis County’s overall tally of hospitalized coronavirus patients climbs by eight over the past day, now at 309. With that increase has also come a rise in ICU bed usage. Right now, 3,798 of the overall 43,836 confirmed cases are active in the county. 39,527 have resulted in a recovery.
COVID hospitalizations have not changed in Williamson County, 85 people are still hospitalized right now. Out of the county’s 1,161 active cases, 16,693 of them have been found since March, resulting in 15,350 recoveries.
COVID curfew
Travis County Authority Dr. Mark Escott has laid out the logic behind a possible upcoming COVID curfew, saying despite current efforts to limit risks, the pandemic is getting worse.
“In particular, we are concerned about bars that are now operating as restaurants but still functioning as bars. As such, our goal would be to look at starting a curfew around 10:00 or 10:30,” says Escott.
He says he doesn’t think that a focused curfew would interrupt too many businesses and he thinks it would still allow households some flexibility in engaging with restaurants.
Stay-at-home orders
Austin and Travis County have both extended the local stay-at-home orders through the middle part of February. Even though it has become very commonplace for all of us, the orders do include extensions of masking requirements and social distancing. It also updates the local quarantine guidelines.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown sent a request to religious leaders around the city of Austin and areas around it pleading for all virtual services to be held whenever possible. Local leaders are worried that too many people may try to attend church services on and around the Christmas holiday.
Dentists want vaccinations
As frontline healthcare workers continue getting vaccinated, some dentists are arguing they too should be included. Dr. Matt Roberts, with the Texas Dental Association, says most dental offices do conduct screenings of patients to the best of their abilities.
“But you know, you’re never 100% sure whether somebody that comes into your office, that you know, potentially could be a COVID carrier,” says Roberts.
But at this point, he says, he hasn’t really heard much as to whether dentists might soon be included in those vaccinations.
Demand for Austin/Round Rock homes
Demand for homes in the Austin Round Rock area is at an all time high, according to Romeo Manzanilla with the Austin Board of Realtors. He says the metro is notorious for low levels of housing stock, but he says the November count brought things to a brand new low.
“The entire MSA is under one month of inventory. So right now the Austin MSA is out 10.9 months of inventory, so the lowest it’s ever been,” says Manzanilla.
The median home prices jumped by nearly 20% as compared to this time last year, now at $365,000.
Greg Casar’s bid for Mayor Pro TEM
Austin City Councilman Greg Casar is making a bid for the seat of Mayor Pro TEM on the City Council Message board. Council member Casar writes that as Mayor Pro TEM, he would take seriously the responsibility to actively welcome diverse perspectives, encourage healthy debate and help build the consensus necessary to address the city’s greatest challenges. Casar points to the ongoing homelessness problem and contentious issue of reworking public safety as the city’s biggest and most unfinished works. So far he is supported by Mayor Steve Adler, four other City Council Members and outgoing Mayor Pro TEM Delia Garza.
Lake Travis school district PD
The Lake Travis school district is getting the ball rolling on the formation of a district Police Department. Superintendent Paul Norton says, because of the size of the district and its continued growth, the school board does feel this is the best course of action.
“Looking at how we can best serve the safety needs of our staff, our students. It is our opinion that the best thing that we can do is to create our own police department,” Norton says.
Overall, the district is budgeting $940,000 to get the department up and running. The district’s contract with Travis County for the three deputies who are currently patrolling its campuses expires at the end of July.
Texas sues Google
Texas is leading a 10 state coalition and suing Google for antitrust and violating consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took to social media to make the state’s case against what he refers to as a trillion dollar monopoly brazenly abusing power.
“Google repeatedly used its monopolistic power to control pricing, engage in market collusions to rig auctions in a tremendous violation of justice,” says Paxton.
Google’s Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker called the monopoly accusations flawed, posting on Twitter that people use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to or can’t find alternatives. Google is also facing antitrust charges from the US Department of Justice.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-12-17-20
