After more than a month of steady increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, there’s a glimmer of hope. “We're close to that stage 4 threshold,” said City of Austin medical director Dr. Desmar Walkes. “We are starting to see positive indicators in our community that COVID-19 is stabilizing and is starting to decline we are seeing,” said the city’s chief epidemiologist Janet Pichette.
COVID -19 appears to be slowing down. The problem is, the intensive care units are still overflowing. “We're seeing longer stays in our ICUs because Delta is different,” said Dr. Walkes.
Austin Public Health told reporters that earlier this week, 20 people who needed to be transported to Austin hospitals had to wait because the ICUs are so full. They weren’t just COVID patients -- but people suffering from strokes and other problems.
The answer right now is more masking, social distancing, and vaccines. While Austin-Travis County approaches 70-percent fully vaccinated -- there are some groups that are lagging.
“The highest rates of unvaccinated folks are in that younger population. 12-15-year-olds they are sitting at 56 percent fully vaccinated,” said APH’s Cassandra De Leon. Young, working-age adults are behind in vaccination rates too.
But elementary-age kids are still not eligible for a vaccine -- and Austin Public Health's leaders say everyone should be taking precautions to protect them -- and to prevent another surge. “It is extremely important that we stop the spread of COVID by wearing masks and by vaccinating everyone who is eligible,” said Dr. Walkes.