Austin school districts
Students in the Austin school district will not be on campus today. It’s one of four asynchronous learning days they’ve been planned for this semester. What that means is kids will be learning remotely 100% but not with real time instruction. Most of the work will be through pre recorded lectures and online activities. February 16, March 6 and April 9 or the other days that these certain asynchronous learning days are being planned.
COVID-19 update
Travis County’s intensive care units have started to show steadier declines this week and for yet another day the number has gone down. 153 people in the ICU this morning and a total of 564 people are hospitalized for COVID-19. Even more progress being made in terms of active cases, with that number falling for another day down to 5,298. All in all, 67,566 cases were confirmed with 61,614 recoveries.
Available hospital bed space has climbed back up slightly in Williamson County to 18% which officials say equates to 679 beds that are open and free this morning. 11% of ICU space is available and 1,802 cases of COVID are still active there. 30,838 cases confirmed since March, resulting in 28,726 recoveries.
Rental assistance in Austin
Austin and Travis County leaders are calling for more state and federal aid to help keep up rental assistance programs, both for individuals and for landlords.
“We’re looking for further and even better ways to protect landlords of the community as we get more funding from the federal government, which is anticipated, although we urge everybody to continue to lobby the federal government as we are to make sure that that happens,” says Austin Mayor Steve Adler.
The city and county both have extended the eviction moratorium until April 1. Adler says, through city aid programs, they’ve sent out $13 million worth of rent relief to 4,300 families during the pandemic.
Austin area rents have fallen by nearly 5% compared to a year ago. Department List’s Chris Salviati explains the pandemic has seen other cities have more drastic drops than that like in San Francisco where rent dropped by 24% year over year.
“Austin is actually fairly modest by that comparison, but at the same time, our national index is down by only 1.2%. So Austin is down, you know, more than four times the national average here,” says Salviati.
However, Salvatti is seeing some glimmers of rental growth returning as the area reds rose by 0.4% month to month, which coincidentally, he says, is also four times the national month to month average.
Vaccine registrations
Registration for vaccine appointments will open up once again today for Hays County. The online portal was launched last week and slots filled up within less than half an hour. Access to the portal won’t be available until noon, but after which you can register at https://www.haysinformed.com/covid-19
Texas has temporarily adopted a new system to make it easier to deliver the COVID vaccine. Over the past couple weeks, Texas has gone from having 28 large scale vaccination hubs to more than 80. These locations are capable of vaccinating 2,000 people a day.
“This was largely driven because as we shifted to the 1B population the demand for vaccines really really increased.” says associate commissioner of the Department of State Health Services, Imelda Garcia.
As they receive more vaccines, they’ll allocate more to the hundreds of other providers
“We are having conversations about how long do we stay with this strategy before we pivot back to more broader distribution?” Garcia says.
Abbott signs order protecting oil and gas
Governor Greg Abbott is not at all on board with Joe Biden’s executive orders signed this week dealing with energy and climate change. Abbott says he signed an executive order of his own protecting the oil and gas sector here in Texas.
“Direct every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatens the continued strength, vitality and independence of the energy industry.”
Abbott says he’ll also veto any policies in the state and the state legislature that are related to the multi trillion dollar green New Deal proposal from Washington Democrats.
Beto O’Rourke considers mayoral run
After losing a Senate race to Ted Cruz and getting bounced out of the last presidential race very early in the primaries. Former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke believes he’s got a shot at the state’s highest office. He’s considering a run for governor next year. Texas doesn’t place term limits on governor, so Governor Greg Abbott will be seeking a third term.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-1-29-21
