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With Covid-19 cases skyrocketing and intensive care unit capacity in hospitals dropping to single digits, Austin area officials are warning of a “disaster” as Texas becomes a center of the pandemic again.
Austin local governments on Saturday issued an urgent message through their emergency notification system begging residents to stay home, mask and get vaccinated.
The request comes just days after Austin Public Health upgraded its risk-based guidelines to Level 5, the highest possible level.
“The situation is critical,” said Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis county health department, in a statement. “Our hospitals are heavily burdened and there is little we can do to alleviate their burden from the increasing number of cases.”
The Texas trauma service area that includes Austin has only six available ICU beds, 499 available hospital beds, and 313 available ventilators – a staggering resource shortage for a population of nearly 2.4 million.
In Austin’s statistical metropolitan area, there are currently 510 Covid patients in hospital, 184 in intensive care and 102 on ventilators.
About a third of recent hospitalizations have been to patients under the age of 50, underscoring the serious threat posed by the Delta variant to younger Texans who have chosen not to vaccinate.
“Hospital bed availability and critical care are extremely limited in our hospital systems, not just for Covid-19 patients but for anyone who may need treatment,” said Walkes. “The community must come together again and fend off a disaster.”
Overall, Texas currently ranks second behind Florida in the highest daily average Covid-19 cases, with infections increasing 134% over the past 14 days. And between early February and mid-July, about 99.5% of Texans who died from the virus were unvaccinated, the Texas Tribune reported.
In Travis County, Austin, nearly 64% of children and adults ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated, compared to about 53% across the state. In some neighboring counties and suburbs, however, vaccination rates are still below the national average.
According to the New York Times, the Bexar district of San Antonio recently saw its average daily caseload increase by more than 300%. And infections are also on the rise in Houston’s Harris County, where only about 56% of those 12 year old and older are fully vaccinated and the average 14-day mean test-positive rate is a whopping 17.7%.
Meanwhile, local officials seeking proven public health measures to contain the spread have been paralyzed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who issued a comprehensive order restricting vaccine and masking requirements.
But some officials, like Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, simply defied Abbott’s orders despite threats of retaliation.
“The governor is preventing the city from protecting children and adults,” Austin councilor Alison Alter told the New York Times. “He will have many deaths here. For our community this is a matter of life and death. “
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