Coronavirus: Austin, Travis County Orders Saved 5K Lives: Report

AUSTIN, TX — Some 5,000 lives were saved as a result of stay-at-home orders implemented in Austin and Travis County to blunt the spread of new coronavirus, according to a report released this week.

The Drexel University report asssessed how such guidelines figured into the rate of hospitalizations and deaths attributed to the respiragtory illness. To achieve the findings, the Philadelphia-based university's Dornsife School of Public Health teamed up with the Big Cities Health Coalition of which Austin-Travis County is a part.

The upshot: The region's stay-at-home orders first implemented on March 24 saved some 4,988 lives across the 45-day span during which the guidelines were in effect. Were they to continue another 60 days, the orders could potentially save up to 5,741 lives as reported in the study.

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In terms of hospitalizations, researchers found 45,898 fewer admissions attributable to the stay-at-home orders after 45 days of implementation. Stretched over the course of 60 days, the orders were credited with 54,908 fewer hospitalizations. To achieve the findings, the university analyzed epidemiologist models published by the New York Times.

"The Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) released estimates that show that early actions by BCHC members, leaders from America’s largest metropolitan health departments, to get the public to stay home led to an estimated 2.1 million hospitalizations avoided and over 200,000 lives saved," researchers explained in a report summary. "These estimates, based on 45-day shelter-in-place/stay-at-home orders, were calculated by the Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health using a model published by The New York Times."

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Dividends from efforts to mitigate the spread of illness in other Texas cities — Dallas, Houston and San Antonio — also were analyzed.

In spite of the life-saving efforts, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent warning letters this week to officials in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio directing them to relax their rules related to illness mitigation — particularly the urging of protective face coverings to churchgoers that the attorney general said are tantamount to limiting religious freedom.

"These unlawful and unenforceable requirements include strict and unconstitutional demands for houses of worship, unnecessary and onerous restrictions on allowing essential services to operate, such as tracking customers who visit certain restaurants, penalties for not wearing masks, shelter-in-place demands, criminal penalties for violating state or local health orders, and failing to differentiate between recommendations and mandates," Paxton wrote in sternly worded correspondence suggesting such moves expose municipalities to legal action.

In terms of local safety guidelines aimed at houses of worship, Paxton suggested such directives have a corrosive effect on religious freedom: "In addition, unlike the governor's orders, which respects [sic] the robust constitutional and statutory rights protecting Texans' free exercise of religion, the county's and city's orders unlawfully trample religious freedom."

Read the letter to Travis County and the City of Austin here

Read Paxton's letter to Bexar County and the City of San Antonio here

Read the letter to Dallas County here

In response to the letter sent to him and former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, Austin Mayor Steve Adler categorized the warnings as politically motivated to ingratiate Paxton to his conservative base: "Up to this point, we have avoided the naked politicization of the virus crisis," Adler wrote in prepared statement provided to Patch. "I will not follow the AG down that road. The city's order complements, incorporates, and does not conflict with the governor's order. We will continue working to keep our community safe to the fullest extent allowed by law."

Indeed, Austin and Travis County moved swiftly to revise the local orders to accommodate those of Gov. Greg Abbott that sought to ease rules tied to church attendance and construction activity — areas the governor proclaimed as "essential services" amid the pandemic to allow for more unfettered practice. (See: Coronavirus: Austin Clarifies Rules After Governor's Orders.)

The mayors of Austin and Dallas — Adler and Eric Johnson, respectively, are Democrats while San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg identifies as an Independent. The mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, is a registered Democrat.

On a related front, Paxton is seeking to stop the wide use of main-in voting for the upcoming elections, viewing the process as one ripe for voter fraud. Proponents of the method see it as a meaures ensuring physical distancing that's seen as an effective tactic in ensuing physical distancing to avoid further spread of an illness for which there is no vaccine.

To view the full Big Cities Health Coalition study, click here.