During Tuesday’s joint session of the Austin Council and Travis County Commissioners Court, Travis county Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes announced Austin Public Health is moving into Stage 4 of the COVID Risk-Based Guidelines. This is due to continues week-over-week declines in the seven-day moving averages of new COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, and positivity rates, Walkes said.
“The Delta variant showed us how unpredictable and deadly this virus can be, especially for the unvaccinated,” said Dr. Walkes. “However, even as we continue to see the data trending in a positive direction, we cannot act as if the pandemic is over. Our hospital and ICUs still remain at critical levels, and we need the public to continue to work together to ensure we do not contribute to a new surge.”
Key data points highlighted Tuesday include:
•The positivity rate, which is the weekly number of people who test positive out of the total number of people tested, has dropped 44 percent, from 14.8 to 8.3 percent from peak in early August.
•The seven-day moving average for hospitalizations has decreased almost 33 percent, peaking at 641.9 on August 27 down to 440 on September 27.
•COVID patients in local ICUs has decreased nearly 21 percent from 230.6 patients on August 27 to 181.1 on September 27.
“While vaccination is a personal decision, those decisions have a direct impact on the health of our community and the hospital system we share with surrounding counties, as well as those who are too young to get vaccinated,” said Interim Austin Public Health Director Adrienne Sturrup. “We cannot afford to take our foot off the gas if we are going to crush this virus and avoid additional surges. As we move into the Fall after an exhausting end of the summer, we need everyone to get vaccinated, for both COVID-19 and the Flu, get tested if they have symptoms and stay home if they are sick.”
