Photo by Roschetzky Photography
The third death has been reported by Austin Public Health. There are now 305 cases of COVID-19 in Austin and Travis County and it is why they believe the true number of infections is actually higher than that. All three of those deaths in Travis County involved people above the age of 60, but the majority of the infections remain between the ages of 20 and 39. The number of UT students, now confirmed to have Coronavirus, since they returned from a spring break trip to Mexico is at 44.
Mayor Steve Adler says it shows how delicate the situation’s become, “It only takes one moment like that. One person that has an infection and this thing can get spread.”
The students claim the company that sponsored that trip assured them it was safe to travel, and so they decided to go. Similarly, Austin Public Health’s new breakdown of ZIP codes shows that the West campus area is a growing hotbed of cases with 31 as of today.
The Austin police chief says no manner of police enforcement will end the spread of Coronavirus. Chief Brian Manley says residents need to cooperate with the shelter-in-place orders. His office is getting calls about folks disregarding them, and in turn his officers are responding.
“Our focus is on education,” he says, “on making sure that the community members understand the orders. That the conduct that they are engaging in is in violation of those orders and the need for them to not do that for the safety and health of everyone involved.”
Manley says his officers were not out looking for order violators, but if they do pull someone over they will be letting folks know what the orders mean.
The COVID-19 growth continues for Hays County, cases have climbed to 42 cases, however 10 people have now made full recoveries. Williamson county reports 14 of its 55 cases have also recovered, and only 13 people were ever hospitalized. Bastrop County not reporting any recoveries, but seven confirmed cases. The number of recoveries in Travis County is also still unclear. Williamson County’s total number of cases is far lower than Travis County, but that may be because of a shortage of test kits. According to Judge Bill Gravell, Williamson county only has 113 kits. Carville says he’ll make an announcement today or tomorrow about some new kits that he’s found and how many of the county expects to purchase.
Austin’s 60 day grace period for renters is now in effect, and eviction hearings have been on pause for weeks. Rebecca Giello with Austin’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department tells CBS Austin the council could approve another relief plan next week.
“We have a team of experts in the city of Austin that are cohesively working together to respond in a way that will offer the greatest agility possible,” Giello says further details of that relief plan should be revealed tomorrow.
Currently, there is no antiviral for COVID-19 but researchers with the UT health say that could be changing. Dr. Thomas Patterson says trials are already underway for a new medicine and it’s shown some promise.
“Patients that got the drug in just a compassionate basis, a few of the very early ones, showed rapid clearance of the virus,” he says this was actually first tested during the 2014 Texas Ebola outbreak, but it wasn’t effective then. The bad news is that these trials could last a year or longer.
The COVID-19 pandemic is projected to cause up to a two year downturn for the state’s most lucrative industry. The Texas Railroad Commission regulates the state’s oil and gas industry. Commissioner Ryan Sitton modeled out how long it could take for demand to return to pre-COVID-19 levels. The best case, after 30 days of sheltering in place, demand could rebound by August.
“If it’s a 60 day downturn, 60 days shelter in place, then we would return back to our normal trends March of 2021,” Sitton says 120 days of shelter in place would delay a return to normalcy to June 2022.
The Round Rock School District scrambles to address what calls an ill timed April Fool’s joke. An image on social media that looks very much like an official message from the superintendent says all in-home schooling has been canceled and all students will have to repeat the current grade level. The district says this is absolutely false. The at-home instruction does begin in Round Rock on Monday.
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-4-2-20
