American rescue plan for economic recovery
Austin City staffers have recommended spending $104 million of the American rescue plan funding on economic recovery. The city’s Veronica Briseño says, of that, $4.5 million should be spent on childcare assistance.
“As we all saw in this year, the pandemic really unearthed the need for quality childcare in our community throughout our community.” Briseño says 6.6 million should also be spent on community assistance, ”so it could be for things such as facilitating the creation of financial services for the unbanked individuals, creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs.”
She says there’s also a variety of other programs that could go into.
COVID-19 update
Total COVID hospitalizations across Travis County do appear to have leveled off this week. 154 people hospitalized this morning, including 62 in the ICU. But the number of active cases has fallen a bit down to 1,012. 76,557 people have recovered. County Health Authority says he does expect a plateau of most of these numbers to continue in the next month,
With nearly 10 million Texans now with at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, the state is expanding eligibility for the vaccinations to all adults 16 and older beginning Monday. Chris Van Dusen, with the Department of State Health Services, says vaccines are accelerating faster than expected.
“We’ve continued to see vaccination drive down hospitalizations and deaths. We really want to keep this momentum going, especially because we do continue to see the variant cases circulate in Texas, they can be transmitted more easily, and the vaccine is our best defense against those,” says Dusen.
So far, 37% of people 50 to 64 have gotten at least one dose, and that jumps up to well over 60% for those 65 older. In Williamson County, at least 60% of people aged 65 older have been vaccinated now fully for COVID. That’s according to County Judge Bill Gravell, who says they’re also having some success out in Taylor, where people have been able to walk up this week and get a dose without an appointment.
“In that there is a pretty good contingent of folks who still don’t use technology to sign up and it went really well,” Gravell says.
Family Hospital Systems has now surpassed 100,000 doses administered. The county is providing vaccines to people in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C.
Social distancing in schools
Austin Public Health is updating its recommendations for social distancing in schools. Health Authority Mark Escott says 6 feet of distancing would still be recommitted if we were to climb back up to stage five restrictions.
“Because of the increased risk of transmission. But it’s likely that we will transition the other distancing recommendations for other stages down to 3 feet within schools. And that is in line with the CDC’S recommendation. However, there are districts that likely won’t be making that change immediately, and that includes Austin ISD,” says Escott.
The Leander School district has reduced its required quarantine time for teachers and staff who had contact with someone with COVID. Instead of a 14 day period, the district now says 10 days is sufficient.
Graduation ceremonies in Round Rock
The Round Rock School District will be giving seniors the opportunity to have a traditional graduation ceremony this year. Those ceremonies will be held on various days for different campuses, but students can also still up for the commencement walk instead. The traditional ceremony would be held in the mornings. Commencement walks in the evenings. The graduation events would begin May 24th and continue through May 29th.
COVID liability protections
Governor Greg Abbott’s emergency item calling for COVID liability protections for businesses that have been operating through the pandemic has been rolled out in the Senate committee this week. It’s called the Pandemic Liability Protection Act, filed by state Senator Kelly Hancock and it goes a bit further than just covering businesses.
“Protect the well meaning healthcare providers, first responders, large and small businesses, religious institutions and nonprofit entities and educational institutes from frivolous lawsuits related to COVID-19,” says Hancock.
State Senator José Menéndez fears that the legal protections may contain some unintended consequences.
“That we don’t pass a bill that inadvertently creates a shield,” says Menéndez.
That is the same reason the AARP isn’t supporting it either.
Tornado causes damage to Bertram downtown
The National Weather Service has now ruled out the possibility of a tornado touching down in Bertram Monday night, but says wind still reached small bursts of 75 MPH. That was enough to cause extensive damage to several buildings downtown. The city says two of those buildings are historic, and they will now have to be demolished.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-3-24-21
