Coronavirus: Travis County Cases 3,186, 1 New Death

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus grew by 62 on Friday from the previous day, rising to 3,186. One new death from the respiratory illness was reported in the same 24-hour period, bringing the total fatality count to 93.

The increase in cases is five less than that emerging on Thursday, when 67 new cases were tallied. Another death was reported on Thursday, bringing the fatality count to 92. The data is found on an Austin Public Health dashboard that is updated daily by health officials.

Travis County cases crossed the 3,000 mark this week when the illness count reached 3,057 on Wednesday — 73 more than the previous day. Also on that day, another three patients succumbed to the respiratory illness.

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Such upward trends prompted Austin and Travis County to extend dual "Stay Home, Work Safe" orders until June 15 as regional officials seek to blunt the spread of illness. Also this week, Austin Mayor Steve Adler, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott hosted a presentation highlighting the need to keep regional hospitalizations to 20 or below daily before fully reopening the local economy.

To better apprise residents on illness trends, Austin Public Health also unveiled a new statistical dashboard with a heightened focus on new key indicators for moving between risk stages. The dashboard features illness counts per stage levels, including:

• Stage 1 (Green): Zero (0) new COVID-19 hospital admissions in a 7-day period
• Stage 2 (Blue): Average of less than 5 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in 7-day period
• Stage 3 (Yellow): Average of 5-19 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period
• Stage 4 (Light Orange): Average of 20-70 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period
• Stage 5 (Red): Average of 70 or more new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period

To see the new dashboard, click here. Here's what it looked like at its Friday unveiling:

Austin Public Health graphic.

Elevated rates of illness come against a backdrop of expanded business reopening across the state as Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to reignite an economy stalled by virus-spurred closures. This week, water parks were added to the list of business set to reopen to the public on Friday. Hours after the governor announced the new round of openings, Typhoon Texas officials announced they would be open on Friday at limited occupancy levels.

As part of the latest round of openings, Abbott also directed operators of food courts within shopping malls to restart and allowed for sports programs to resume.

Related stories:

• Coronavirus: Austin Extends 'Stay Home, Work Safe' Order
• Coronavirus: Austin Hospitalizations Eyed As Key Reopening Metric
• Texas To Reopen Water Parks, Food Courts, More
• Coronavirus: Abbott To Let More Businesses Reopen Friday
• Texas Governor Allows Malls, Restaurants, More To Open By May 1
• Coronavirus: Texas Illness Count Exceeds 57K, 26 More Deaths

By gubernatorial proclamation, Abbott last month launched a multi-phased state economy reopening by first allowing operators of restaurants, malls and movie theaters to open their doors to the public again, albeit at limited occupancy levels, starting May 1.

View Texans Helping Texans: The Governor's Report to Open Texas.

Restaurant operators initially were allowed to reopen at 25 percent occupancy, a level later upped to 50 percent. In the next round of reopening, barbershops, nail salons, tanning booths, bowling alleys, bingo halls and other business were allowed to reopen.