Coronavirus: Travis County Officials Revise Orders Amid Spikes

AUSTIN, TX — Amid growing rates of the coronavirus and related hospitalizations, Travis County and Austin officials on Monday revised orders to better safeguard the population from respiratory illness.

To that end, Austin and Travis County residents are directed to continue practicing social distancing, hygiene and face-covering behaviors under dual orders adopted on Monday.

The Travis County order set to expire on Aug. 15 states: “COVID-19 remains a public health emergency. While services and businesses begin to reopen, medical and scientific experts agree that doing so presents a risk to public health and increased community spread of COVID-19.”
It adds: “People should not be in groups larger than 10 people and should maintain social distancing from those not in their group.”

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For its part, the City of Austin Order — which replaces the existing Stay Home-Work Safe mandate and also expires on Aug. 15 — states that social gatherings of up to 10 people shall be “avoided or minimized.”

Increased rates of illness and hospitalizations as illustrated on an Austin Public Health statistical dashboard prompted county and city officials to go to the Stage 4 restrictions level.

Socializing or attending outdoor events in groups of more than 10 individuals outside the same household is prohibited, officials noted during a press briefing. However, nothing in the orders prohibit the gathering of members of a household within the household’s residence, officials noted.

Read the Austin Mayor's Order HERE.

Read the Travis County Judge’s Order HERE.

In issuing the dual orders, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt (now special assistant to Judge Sam Biscoe) had the thread the needle carefully to avoid running afoul of Gov. Greg Abbott's more relaxed guidelines. The governor started to open the stalled state economy on May 1 despite the lack of flattened illness trends.

Related story: Coronavirus: Travis County Illness Count 4,664, 2 New Deaths

He also waived the requirement for people to wear protective facial coverings in favor of allowing residents to practice their own brand of "person responsibility." Abbott also previously deemed worship services and construction activity as "essential services," further stoking fears of potential spread of the respiratory illness for which there is no vaccine.

Indeed, the dual orders make exceptions for certain behaviors, including those permitted by the Texas governor. But all individuals and businesses are advised by the city’s order to comply with the minimum health protocols in the Governor’s Open Texas Checklists, found at: gov.texas.gov/organization/opentexas.

"The governor of the State of Texas has taken away from us enforcement authority to put into place adaptive measures that have proven to be effective against COVID-19," Eckhardt said during the press briefing. "But we know our community. We know that we in Austin, and Travis County and all the municipalities around Travis County are willing and able to make the adaptations ready to keep our neighbors healthy, and we will do what's necessary to keep our community safe. Please believe us."

Adler expressed similar sentiments: "We need to look into ourselves right now," he said. "We have a virus that is disproportionately going after people over 65, those with pre-existing conditions and communities of color. By the individual choices that we make, and what we can do over the next several weeks, we get to decide how important it is to protect those people — our neighbors — in this community."

At a time of civil unrest over police brutality running concurrent to the pandemic, Adler invoked the Black Lives Matter movement in saying its eponymous mantra should be more than a slogan. "If we want to show solidarity with our Latinx communit and our African American community, we will take these steps together to protect all of us," he said.

Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said the press briefing and attendant revised orders were not a scare tactic, but a plea to help flatten the illness curve: "This is not about shocking people or living in fear. This is about being smart," he said.

He made a point to note hospital bed capacity is adequate to accommodate more patients suffering from the respiratory illness, but precautions must be taken now to prevent an overload. "Our hospitals are in good shape right now," Escott said. "The conversation today is a concern is what is three or four or five weeks into the future. The conversation today is about behavior change to see what we can do to flatten this curve again."

Officials noted a number of measures in the city’s order are continuations of the previous orders. These include a recommendation for businesses to keep “activity logs” to help Austin Public Health track and trace potential cases among customers, and restrictions on visitors to nursing homes, retirement and long-term care facilities.

The city’s order also states, while the City of Austin is declared to be in a Stage 4 Alert (or higher), all businesses and operations reopened under the governor’s executive orders are strongly encouraged to operate at a capacity less than otherwise permitted to make it more feasible for customers and staff to maintain proper social distancing within their establishment, officials explained.

The order includes requirements for households to isolate and not travel outside Austin-Travis County if a member of their household tests positive for COVID-19, or is awaiting test results, until cleared by Austin Public Health.

While the orders include general requirements for face coverings — noting that they cannot be enforced by civil or criminal penalty — they also state that “maintaining sox feet social distancing and hand washing” are equally important steps to slowing the spread of the virus.

For more information and updates, visit AustinTexas.gov/COVID19.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — Austin and Travis County leaders on Monday are scheduled to adopt revised orders aimed at blunting the spread of the coronavirus amid a "troubling" rise in cases and hospitalizations, officials said.

"As more businesses reopen, Austin-Travis County leaders want to remind the public to continue to be vigilant and practice good hygiene, physical and social distancing, and wear face coverings to prevent the disease from spreading and help keep each other safe," officials said in an emailed advisory.

To that end, Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott, Mayor Steve Adler, and special assistant to Judge Sam Biscoe, Sarah Eckhardt, will participate in a virtual news conference to discuss the orders at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. City and County leaders also will discuss impacts to our Risk-Based Guidelines after the area's seven-day moving average of new hospital admissions surpassed 20 over the weekend.

Health officials have noted full economic expansion can only occur amid a consistent level of less than 20 daily hospitalizations. Measures to control the coronavirus spread come as Gov. Greg Abbott's multi-phased reopening of the state economy continues unabated despite upticks in illness statewide.

The governor also has made the wearing of face coverings — seen as an effective tool in slowing illness spread — as voluntary rather than mandatory opting for residents to exercise what he called "individual responsibility." Even at the peak of illness spikes, Abbott also deemed worship services and construction activity as "essential services," all but making illness-slowing safeguards not applicable for those activities.

A spike of 30 new hospitalizations in Travis County on Sunday pushed the seven-day rolling average to 20.6, according to data found on an Austin Public Health statistical dashboard. In turn, the spike prompted health officials to go to Stage 4 of the health alert.

A key advisory in Stage 4 recommends that lower-risk individuals avoid social gatherings with more than 10 people, eschew non-essential travel and avoid shopping and dining for non-essential purposes. Those in higher-risk categories also are advised to follow the guidelines but limit social gatherings to no more than two people.

Travis County health officials reported 84 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total to 4,545. The number of recoveries increased to 3,456 for the region, according to the Austin Public Health dashboard. An estimated 104 people have died of the respiratory illness since the onset of COVID-19 on the region.

Residents wishing to tune in to officials' presentation on Monday can watch the video feed in a variety of ways:

• LiveU signal
• Livestream feed ATXN 1: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/watch-atxn-live
• Livestream feed ATXN 3 (Spanish-language Simulcast): http://media.swagit.com/austintx/atxn3/
• Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/austintexasgov

After the presentation, reporters will have the opportunity to ask questions of government and health officials.