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Austin-Travis County’s top health authority on Friday urged residents to resume wearing masks as the area returned to level 4 coronavirus guidelines, a sign of worsening pandemic conditions in central Texas due to the presence of a highly contagious one Variant known as delta.
Dr. Austin-Travis County’s health department Desmar Walkes announced the stricter recommendations after the weekly average of daily hospital admissions hit 35 on Thursday night, the highest since late February.
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“In just five months we detected four new variants of this virus,” said Walkes, who was accompanied by five other local doctors during a public briefing, on Friday. “And last week’s data shows that the Delta variant is more severe and deadly than its predecessors.”
Walkes said Friday she now recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks again in any situation where social distancing cannot occur. These situations include shopping, dining, traveling, and sporting events.
Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents should stop gathering in groups at all and only shop, eat, and travel when absolutely necessary, say Austin Public Health guidelines. They should also continue to wear masks in public spaces, especially indoors.
Children older than 2 years should also wear masks indoors or when they cannot socialize outside, Austin Public Health said in a statement Friday. Walkes said coronavirus hospital admissions have increased in children, a trend that continues to worry health leaders and is starting about a month before students are scheduled to return to school.
Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for a coronavirus vaccine.
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The latest data from the University of Texas modeling consortium, which is being used by local health officials to understand the likely consequences of disease spreading in the coming weeks, says Austin will likely be full of intensive care units by Aug. 21 if residents don’t start to wear masks again and stay socially aloof in public.
If Austin residents don’t adhere to Level 4 guidelines, UT projections show the area could see an estimated 12,279 hospitalizations and 1,282 deaths by October 1.
“When I think of when the ICU nurses hear the surge is coming, I see that look, really, they’re overwhelmed,” said Elizabeth Douglas, an infectious disease doctor at UT Health Austin. “We are tired. You are tired. I just ask you to think about it and wear a mask.
Austin Public Health’s guidelines – from Lowest Coronavirus Spread Threat Level 1 to Highest Threat Level 5 – have been used for about a year to help residents understand the risk to the community while providing at the same time Provide guidelines to follow to avoid transmission or contract the disease.
In addition to the average of new hospital admissions, Austin Public Health took into account the increase in the daily average for new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus-induced disease 148, the highest since early March in making the decision to signal Phase 4.
The pandemic hit the region at level 3 in the spring of 2020 and reached level 5 at the end of the year. The city dropped to level 2 a few months ago but never reached level 1.
The guidelines are not legal requirements, but some aspects are enforced as part of the county’s health regulations.
Encouraged company to reintroduce mask guidelines
Companies were asked on Friday to revert to masking policies to protect employees and customers.
Austin City’s Economic Development Department now recommends that companies encourage all customers to wear face masks and put up clearly labeled signs with mask guidelines, according to a statement released Friday. Business owners should also consider limiting in-store and on-site capacity, the recommendations state.
Austin and Travis County made masks mandatory by law earlier this year by requiring companies to have face-covering guidelines, but Governor Greg Abbott passed an executive order in May that put an end to local governments’ masking requirements on businesses or individuals.
Austin-Travis County’s health authorities ended local masking requirements as soon as Abbott’s orders were issued to avoid a potential courtroom conflict with the governor.
Abbott will also not allow schools to require students, teachers, or visitors to wear masks.
Masks may only be required in state-sponsored residential centers, state or operated hospitals, Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities, Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, and county and community prisons as directed.
However, companies can still choose whether to require their customers to wear face covers.
During an interview with KPRC television station in Houston this week, Abbott said he felt it was “inappropriate to require people who already have immunity to wear a mask.”
Although fully vaccinated people have an effectiveness rate of about 88% versus the Delta variant in preventing serious illness or death, they are asked to wear masks as they can still be infected with the mutation and spread the disease to those who have not been vaccinated can transfer, health officials said.
Partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people remain at risk of serious illness from all strains of the virus until they are two weeks after the second vaccination, local health officials said.
Brandon Hodge, the owner of two South Congress Avenue companies and president of the South Congress Merchant Association, said he wasn’t surprised companies in Austin are again being asked to have masking mandates. He said he believed Abbott’s decision to abolish mask mandates was premature.
“Can I just say that I told you?” said Hodge. “You know, it’s so frustrating when our officers don’t listen. It’s bad enough that they don’t listen to the local experts, but it’s even worse when they don’t listen to the local business and the trenches, “doing it every day.”
Hodge said while he supports a move to protect shoppers in the Austin area from the coronavirus through the renewed mask requirement, he believes it should not be left to the business owners or employees to enforce it.
When a customer questions masking rules, Hodge says, situations can escalate into confrontations for which employees are not equipped.
“Here we are, small business owners, trying to protect our employees and our customers,” said Hodge. “And to be demonized for these actions is a very difficult thing.
“Unfortunately, I think this issue has become so politicized that any change in our far-right government’s stance on the issue would be seen as a sign of weakness,” said Hodge. “It will fall on deaf ears. We have business to do.”
Large events, face-to-face learning is likely to continue
Walkes said Friday she doesn’t recommend capacity changes for large events and activities like soccer games, concerts, and weekend festivals. It also didn’t have any specific capacity recommendations for bar owners on Sixth Street or beyond.
If the remaining 30% of the Austin area’s unvaccinated residents went for a coronavirus shot this weekend, it would take about 35 to 40 days after the first dose to be fully protected from the virus, according to Walkes. The only way out of rising cases in the short term is for residents to wear masks again.
“We are making this appeal to individuals, citizens, parishioners, neighbors, relatives, friends,” said Walkes. “We ask them to get vaccinated, No. 1. And we ask them to wear a mask to protect themselves and everyone around them so that we can all vaccinate and protect and reduce the number of cases.”
Dr. Menna Iyer, chief medical officer at Dell Children’s Medical Center, said she was helping children who personally go back to school to avoid the surge in child mental illness due to lack of social interaction seen during the peak of the pandemic last year .
“We really want these kids to go back to school, work with each other, have social interactions so they can develop,” said Iyer. “For that to happen, we want everyone to get vaccinated and keep wearing masks.”
Dr. Brian Metzger, who works in the Infectious Diseases Division at St. David’s Healthcare, added Walkes’ statements Friday that fewer than 10% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the area are vaccinated.
“And the vaccinated make up 60 to 70 percent of the adults in our area,” said Metzger. “So 90% of the cases come from around 30% of the population. So you can see this inequality and see how well these vaccines work. ”
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