Hurricane Marco
Overnight, Hurricane Marco was downgraded to a tropical storm. As it continues to make its way towards landfall this evening in Louisiana, it’s then expected ahead towards East Texas after that. Governor Greg Abbott, at an Austin news conference Sunday, says he wants to ensure any problems caused by the storm does not increase COVID-19 infections.
“Continue to do everything that you can to maintain your distance from others, to remember the safety practices that you have adopted over the past few months,” Abbott says.
Statewide, the numbers are down and he wants to maintain that trend.
COVID-19 update
That trend is continuing in Travis County as well. It hit an important milestone over the weekend as the number of people hospitalized for coronavirus plunged well below 200 for the first time in months. As of this morning, 172 people are hospitalized, including 40 people on ventilators.
Williamson County’s tally of active coronavirus cases has seen a steady decline as well, including a drop of 35 from this same time, Friday morning. Currently, 608 cases are active and 71 people are hospitalized in Williamson County.
Hays County’s hospitalizations have remained fairly low compared to neighboring counties. Right now, 20 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. Since March, only 134 of the 5,250 confirmed cases have actually required a hospital stay. 2,425 cases are still considered active and 2,780 people have recovered in Hays County.
Should daycares report COVID numbers?
There isn’t any law that says daycares must release COVID-19 infection numbers. Bay Scoggin, with the Texas Public Interest Research Group, says it’s up to parents to still request them.
“There isn’t any necessarily statutory requirements from daycares that we’re aware of. But, we hope that daycares will opt into a real, transparent policy,” Scoggin says
If your child’s daycare won’t release case numbers then it may be time to find a new daycare.
Unemployment in Texas
Unemployment was up across the country again last month. In Texas, the numbers dropped 8%; that’s the best since March. Economist Mike Davis says while that is good, don’t get too excited just yet.
“It’s nice that our employment numbers look a little bit better than the rest of the country, but the employment numbers we’re seeing coming from the rest of the country suggest that it’s gonna be a long, slow grind to get out of all of this,” Davis says.
Since our economy is tied to everyone else’s economy, the rest of the country must improve before we see sustained job gains here in Texas.
Labor Day’s COVID risk
Austin’s mayor is warning against lax attitudes as Labor Day nears. Steve Adler says while the city’s covered pandemic has improved, he fears that could change for the worse over the upcoming holiday weekend.
“You know what we’re finding is, so I’m told by Dr. Escott, is that where we were running into problems is not so much of the organized places; you know where businesses are doing all the mitigation efforts, maintaining the social distancing, making sure people are wearing masks,” Adler says.
Rather, it’s the informal gatherings with family and friends that could be the worst source of COVID infections.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-24-20
