The Austin Covid Dashboard shows the city has entered stage 5 of the pandemic, since the 7-day moving average of hospitalizations hit 50 people as of last night.
However Stage 5 restrictions are not yet in place as Austin Public Health Leaders are going over the numbers to determine if the latest numbers are an indication of more to come, or is the peak of a recent spike, and what should be done. City officials say a call might be made as soon as this weekend.
Official Statement:
Yesterday our 7-day moving average of hospital admissions hit 50. Unfortunately, the key indicators for risk stage changes, including the 7-day moving average of hospitalizations, number of patients in the ICU, ventilator use, positivity rate, and 7-day moving average of cases are all trending upward. The next couple days of data from the key indicators dashboard and the projections from the UT Modeling Consortium will be critical as we consider moving stages, and we will be closely monitoring the trends.
Throughout this pandemic, Austin-Travis County kept our COVID-19 numbers comparatively low not by accident or luck, but through community engagement and action. Once again, the actions we take in the coming days and weeks can either move us in the right direction or in the direction of a deadly surge like those we have seen across Texas.
