Photo by Roschetzky Photography
Hospital capacity continues to be the focus of local health officials. Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott says there is a plan to address a surge of new patients, part of which includes repurposing space inside of each hospital.
“Putting two beds in a room that normally has one bed and maybe turning anesthesia machines into ventilators,” Escott says that could increase bed capacity by 4,300.
The plan also includes using alternate care sites if the hospital’s already at capacity, offering the full scope of hospital care, but in smaller medical clinics.
Austin Public Health is now giving some recovery numbers. Of the 597 cases in Travis County as of today, 106 have made full recoveries, 75 are still in the hospital but no new deaths have occurred. There are 97 cases in Williamson County, and 40 of those have made recoveries. 23 of the 54 cases in Hays County have recovered. Two are hospitalized. In Bastrop County, there are 18 cases confirmed, but so far no recovery data has been provided.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler says some great strides have been made in social distancing. Mayor Adler says residents have done enough social distancing to push the infection curve beyond earlier predictions if Austinites had acted as normal.
“The actual peak itself probably won’t be until May going into June. So what we read in the newspaper about this being the Pearl Harbor week and it’s probably true for New York, but not true for here,” Adler says.
Mayor Adler, along with other local leaders, still want to see more decreases in social interactions, as that would lead to a less strenuous burden on the medical system. To that end, he is open to shut down parks and trails this weekend and beyond to emphasize that effort.
Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell is joining others and asking you to stay home this weekend. Judge Gravell says he would like to go to church for Easter service this weekend, but he isn’t, and he hopes other people will follow his lead.
“If you care about your loved one, then protecting you or protecting them really is the most important thing that you could do,” Gravell says.
It’ll be the first time in 40 years that he hasn’t been physically in church on Easter Sunday, but he will attend services online. Gravell hopes everyone who wants to worship will do the same thing.
The Austin City Council will vote today on contracting with three hotels to offer quarantine for people who can’t do so at home. The city is expected to spend nearly $3.6 million for 60 days worth of rooms at the Crowne Plaza, La Quinta Inn and Motel 6, all of which are along I-35. The money would also fund breakfast, lunch and dinner for all workers and the more than 1,000 people who are expected to take up rooms there for quarantine.
Advocacy group Grassroots Leadership is making some big demands amid the coronavirus outbreak. Not only is the group saying that all undocumented immigrants should be released immediately from the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor, but it also says the City of Austin should approve $10 million for direct $1,000 cash payments to those who are undocumented. The group says only people with a social security number would benefit from a federal stimulus.
A fifth Capital Metro employee has tested positive for COVID-19 and that person is now the fourth bus driver to fall ill with the virus. The other employee was a mechanic who has since died. Capital Metro started giving masks to all employees who work in a position that deals directly with the public.
By today, Texas should hit the 100,000 mark for the number of COVID-19 tests performed, and Governor Greg Abbott says Walgreens is opening up new drive-through sites that will use the new 15 minute test kits.
“Each of these sites may be able to be built up to administer as many as 3,000 tests per day.
The locations for these new sites are still being determined, but they should start opening up in the coming days. Abbott says about 10% of all tests across the state have been positive, and 770 people have since made a recovery.
Governor Abbott is being sued by several groups of judges, lawyers and the Texas NAACP over his order preventing jail inmates from being released on personal recognizance bonds. The lawsuit claims Abbott is violating constitutional rights of inmates, both violent and nonviolent.
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