Adler speaks on DC violence
Austin’s mayor has a few words to say about the violence yesterday in Washington DC. Mayor Steve Adler says what happened at the nation’s capital was frightening to behold.
“Scary times. Scary moment to see the visual images that we have of people storming the United States Capitol.” He adds this was no protest, but a mob. “I think using the word insurrection is proper because we had people storming the Capitol with the intent to stop the democratic process,” Adler says.
Yesterday, was supposed to be the simple, peaceful transfer of power, but instead it was a day that does not reflect well upon the nation.
COVID-19 update
The number of overall coronavirus hospitalizations in Travis County has climbed by another 17 over the past day, now to 569. 5,101 cases of the virus were known to be active. Right now, there have been 53,935 cases found since last year, 48,270 are now recoveries.
In Williamson County, there has been a slight increase in the overall total of hospitalized COVID patients. 158 people are in the hospital today, that’s up by 5. 1,963 cases active out of 22,836 confirmed, almost 20,700 people have made a recovery.
All hands on deck for COVID patients
So with hospitalizations continuing to go up, some local EMS workers are pitching in to help manage with loads. Selena Xie with the Austin EMS association tells CBS Austin resources and staff were stretched pretty thin.
“I happen to know many of our medics do happen to also hold their nursing degree. And so I have been working in the hospital. Nurses that are dedicated to COVID units are, frankly, completely burnt out,” Xie says.
Some people in the ER who are not there for COVID reasons are having to wait longer for beds due to the number of people in the hospitals with coronavirus.
Restrictions not working
Local health officials are not seeing the impact they were hoping from the occupancy roll back to 50% for retail and restaurants. Travis County Health Authority Mark Escott says it’s a strategy that’s clearly not working.
“Which means that we need to reassess. We need to replan and we need to implement other strategies that may serve to mitigate the risk further,” says Escott.
Which could be an indication that Escott may look to make recommendations for even more rigid local restrictions. He says hospitalizations will continue to go up until that risk is mitigated.
Restaurant capacity
Restaurants in the Austin area could soon see their capacity limits dropped to 50% on the state level due to Governor Abbott’s own executive order. It says if 15% of the trauma service areas total hospital bed capacity is used for COVID patients for seven straight days, those restrictions will be handed down. Chris Porter is with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
“The governor’s executive order has taken steps with the intention to reduce crowds at certain areas where there could be a risk for possible transmission of the coronavirus,” says Porter.
The Metro is part of an 11 county trauma service area. Porter says, unless there’s a major change soon, those restrictions may hit by next week.
Travis County has got a little more than 52,000 doses of COVID vaccines, which have been spread out to various hospitals and clinics and pharmacies. And as demand has been growing, Dr. Anas Daghestani with the Austin Regional Clinic tells FOX 7 they got 7,000 doses that are almost gone.
“We’re working very closely with the state and with the local health authorities and hoping to receive notification any moment for additional vaccine shipments hopefully, over the next few days,” says Daghestani.
Vaccines running out
A lot of providers say they’ve either run out already or they expect to run out of vaccines very soon. More than 2,000 seniors in Williams County have gotten their first dose of the COVID vaccine. County Judge Bill Gravell says it’s vital to protect the older, high risk population. And so these vaccines have been spread out across 14 long term care and nursing facilities.
Foster care reform
After nearly a decade of fighting foster care reforms put in place by a federal judge, Governor Greg Abbott has now given the order to two of the state’s welfare agencies to comply with orders. Governor Abbott sent a letter to the Health and Human Services Commissioner ordering them to obey Judge Janice Graham Jack’s orders, which were designed to keep kids in the state’s foster care system safe. Things like ensuring overnight monitoring. The nonprofit a Better Childhood filed the original lawsuit against Texas. Director Marcia Robinson Lowry is cautiously optimistic.
“It’s good that the governor has said this. We hope it’s a change of events, but we have to wait and see what the states actually are going to do. We hope it means it’s a new day for kids. A good day for kids,” says Lowry.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-1-7-21
