Austin, Travis County Urge Everyone To Wear Masks And For Unvaccinated Residents To Stay Home As COVID-19 Cases Surge
[ad_1]
July 23, 2021
Public health officials in Austin and Travis Counties are now encouraging vaccinated people to wear masks both indoors and outdoors, and those who are not vaccinated except for staying home for essential needs – the first major Texas city to have one Take step.
This is because the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread across the state, increasing the county’s seven-day average of new hospital admissions to 35 – the threshold for Level 4 of the region’s risk-based COVID-19 guidelines.
The district officials announced this on Friday morning in a virtual press conference. Under level 4, officials want residents – vaccinated and unvaccinated – to wear masks in public at all times and unvaccinated people to leave their homes only for essential trips.
The city cannot enforce the restrictions, however, as Governor Greg Abbott banned all local pandemic-related mandates in May. The recommendations differ from those of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which states that it is safe for fully vaccinated individuals to “resume activities they did before the pandemic without wearing a mask or exercising distance”.
Just eight days ago, city and county officials raised Level 3 protocols urging unvaccinated people to avoid unnecessary travel and to wear masks when leaving their homes.
The last time the county was in phase 4 was March 12, after the winter summit of COVID-19 cases and the start of the state’s vaccination efforts. On that day, the state trauma service region, which includes Travis and 10 surrounding counties, reported that 248 patients with COVID-19 had been hospitalized.
The number fell to its lowest level – 190 hospital admissions – on March 29, and has risen to 244 hospitalized COVID-19 patients since Friday.
COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions have increased nationwide: the seven-day average of new cases in Texas rose from 2,410 to 4,087 daily cases compared to the previous seven-day period, while hospital admissions increased 47% over the same period.
Fort Worth Report is a non-partisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism on Tarrant County’s city and county government, schools, health care, business, and arts and culture. Always free to read; Subscribe to the newsletter, read reports or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.
[ad_2]
