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Austin Public Health on Tuesday announced a move to lower level 4 of the agency’s risk-based guidelines as hospital admissions related to COVID-19 continue to decline dramatically since the summer surge.
Dr. Austin-Travis County’s Health Department Desmar Walkes announced the positive change Tuesday during a joint session of Austin City Council and Travis County Commissioners Court, praising the community’s efforts to reduce infection rates.
Below Level 4, Austin area residents who are fully vaccinated but are still at high risk of developing serious illness can now travel, gather outdoors, shop, and dine safely while wearing a mask, per guidelines. Anyone not fully vaccinated can now travel masked and shop safely, but only when strictly necessary.
“The behaviors our community has taken to reduce the number of cases have been effective,” Walkes said Tuesday. “Unvaccinated people are still advised not to go into environments where there are people they do not live with. And when they go out to eat and shop, it is recommended that they wear masks) by the roadside for eating and just for shopping. “
Austin Public Health’s guidelines range from Level 1 to Level 5, with 5 indicating the highest threat to the spread of the coronavirus in the community. The Austin area is considered to be in the Level 4 area when the rolling 7-day average of new daily hospital admissions is between 30 and 50.
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On Tuesday, 33 new daily hospital admissions were reported for COVID-19, bringing the moving seven-day hospital stay average down to 32, which was not only below the Monday average of 34, but also the lowest since July 21, when the average was also 32.
Walkes, who pointed to the highly contagious Delta variant as the driver of a new summer wave, urged residents, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks in public when cases increased in early July. Austin and Travis County entered phase 5 of the agency’s risk-based guidelines in early August after seeing a steady increase in COVID-19 hospital admissions in the area.
It was early September when hospitals reported no remaining intensive care beds for the entire health region of 11 counties serving 2.3 million people. Walkes said at the time that some patients in need of critical care were being treated outside of the trauma service area, while others had to be moved several counties away to find an empty bed and because of serious medical needs such as car accident injuries, and heart attacks Strokes and the coronavirus to be treated.
More:In central Texas, ICU beds are running out for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began
In recent weeks, hospital stays have slowly declined compared to the pandemic records set up in the summer.
Health officials reported a total of 382 people in hospitals in the Austin area on Tuesday due to COVID-19, an improvement over the 390 inpatients on Monday – and the pandemic record high of 653 patients set on August 25.
Up to 170 people were in intensive care units in the Austin area because of COVID-19. That number hit a record pandemic high of 237 on August 22nd. The 111 patients on ventilators also remained a positive change from the pandemic high of 174 set on August 29th.
Walkes said Tuesday the likely cause of the falling numbers was an increase in coronavirus vaccinations during the surge, along with people continuing to wear masks and distance themselves in public.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said Tuesday that 80.77% of Travis County’s qualified residents – those 12 and older – are vaccinated with at least one dose. Of these, 70.74% are fully vaccinated.
More:Texas Number Of COVID Patients Falls To 9,500; State has the most critical care beds available in almost 2 months
Hitting the 70 percent target for Austin and Travis Counties residents was a long-awaited milestone for Austin Public Health, but it didn’t come soon enough for the region to experience true herd immunity to the coronavirus. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient proportion of a community becomes immune – either through vaccination or disease – that it is unlikely to spread further.
However, the Delta variant formed and began to rip through the community before 70% of the public got at least one vaccination. Walkes has said over the past few weeks that despite the delay in reaching the 70% threshold, vaccinations will continue to help keep future cases down as more adults get their vaccinations and younger children qualify.
“Our vaccination efforts to protect our population from COVID-19 have been helpful,” said Walkes. “Both masking and vaccination have also helped those who are not protected by a vaccine, so it is important to continue these efforts until we are able to vaccinate our entire population.”
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