Coronavirus: Austin Officials Offer Face Coverings Guidance

AUSTIN, TX — The regional health authority on Monday provided further details on newly issued advice urging all residents to wear protective face coverings to blunt the spread of coronavirus.

Dr. Mark Escott, the interim health authority for Austin-Travis County, staged a news conference as a follow-up to guidance first issued by city and county officials on Sunday. As evidence of community spread of the COVID-19 grows, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on the wearing of protective face coverings — a measure originally urged to those already infected by the virus causing respiratory illness.

Growing evidence shows those who are asympmtomatic — exhibiting no symptoms of the virus and otherwise healthy — could potentially spread the illness as carriers. Given the finding, the wearing of fabric face coverings is now being recommended for everyone, not just those already afflicted with the illness.

"It's also important to undersand that this has to be combined with social distancing," Escott noted. Lacking a vaccine for the illness, health officials have pointed to the tactics of physical distancing — keeping a six-foot distance with others — as the most effective way of mitigating the spread of illness. "In combination, this can be an effective way to further flatten the curbe and prevent the spread," Escott said.

Cotton with a high thread count is the preferred fabric to use in making protective face coverings, Escott said. Short of that, an everyday scarf can be used. Either way, it's important to cover both the nose and the mouth — avenues through which respiratory droplets emitted from coughing or sneezing can be transmitted, the doctor noted.

Escott also urged wearers to ensure comfort of their homemade creations to avoid constant adjustments that cause them to touch their faces, which defeats the purpose of the endeavor.

Residents are still being dissuaded from stocking up on medical-grade surgical masks to ensure a healthy supply to those on the front lines of the coronavirus fight —nurses, doctors, ambulance medics and the like. What's more, those who have stockpiled such supplies are urged to donate them to the Austin Disaster Relief Network for distribution to medical personnel, Escott said.

The city has offered guidance on making the face coverings in a municipal portal accessible by clicking here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers similar guidance on its website.

Included in the municipal primer on cloth face coverings' requirements are several tips:

• They should fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face;
• be secured with ties or ear loops;
• include multiple layers of fabric;
• allow for breathing without restriction;
• and should be able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape.

The portal offers tutorials on making protective face coverings from readily available household items, including bandanas, coffee filters and t-shirts.

The aim of the effort to increase face coverings' use is to slow the spread of illness so that businesses can re-open sooner, Escott said. Restaurants, bars and other businesses have shut down temporarily in the city and across the U.S. in adherence to social distancing guidelines.

Monday's bolstered advice on face covering is the latest measure being implmented to slow the spread of illness. Showing a united front, officials from both Travis and Williamson counties issued a shelter-in-place order for the region on March 23. Before that, Austin and Travis County on March 17 concurrently ordered all restaurants and bars to close in an effort to ensure social distancing. Two days later, Gov. Greg Abbott issued his own order compelling such closures, adding gyms and schools to the mix.

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Asked if more robust enforcement action was in the offing to compel adherence to coronavirus-caused provisions on social distancing, Escott suggested the possibility of that in the future. "We're going to continue to review that," he said. "We're really asking right now for voluntary commitment.

While keeping up on the ever-evolving virus on a daily basis, Escott has also has been informed by lessons of the past to deal with the current illness scourge, he suggested. During his press briefing, Escott made reference to the 1918 influenza pandemic — the most severe in recent history that was caused by an H1N1 virus of avian origin.

Known colloquially as the "Spanish flu," the illness spread despite people's use of protective face coverings but largely because of a false sense of security in their wearing that failed to deter people from congregating. That lesson from the past prompted Escott to reiterate the need for social distancing even while wearing fabric face coverings.

Read more about the influenza pandemic of 1918 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — Austin and Travis County officials have scheduled a press briefing on Monday advising on the use of fabric face coverings to blunt the spread of the coronavirus illness.

The use of face coverings was urged over the weekend amid the growing spread of the COVID-19 virus that causes respiratory illness. To expound on the advice, officials will stage a livestreamed presentation detailing the use of face coverings scheduled at 3 p.m. on Monday, April 6.

Amid ever-evolving guidance related to COVID-19, the call for all residents to wear face coverings when out in public is a departure from earlier advice calling for their use only among those already afflicted with illness. The virus is emitted by coughing or sneezing among those already afllicted, but asympomatic people exhibiting no symptoms are now believed to be carriers capable of spreading the illness.

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Despite the new guidance, members of the public are still being dissuaded from securing N95 surgical masks to ensure adequate supply for those on the front lines of the coronavirus fight, including nurses, doctors and ambulance medics.

Austin-Travis County officials issued the guidance on wide use of face coverings on Sunday. "This recommendation is consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," officials wrote in reacting to the newly issued advice from the Atlanta-based health agency.

Related stories:

• Coronavirus: Austin, Travis County Urge Use Of Face Coverings
• Coronavirus: Austin Illness Count Grows By 24 To 484
  
• Coronavirus: WilCo Illness Count Grows To 81, 3rd Death Reported

The presentation on Monday afternoon will be broadcast and livestreamed, enabling members of the public to listen in. To ensure physical distancing, journalists were invited to submit their questions in advance via a Google document to be read by a pool reporter representing the media at large ia Cisco WebEx.

The bolstered advice comes as the COVID-19 threat continues to grow in scope. Updated figures show a 24-patient increase of afflicted residents over the weekend in Travis County, bringing the total number of cases to 484. In neighboring Williamson County, the number of cases grew to 81 on Monday, with a third death reported in the region.

Here are the ways to access the video feed:

• LiveU signal.
• Livestream feed ATXN 1: media.swagit.com/austintx/atxn1/.
• Livestream feed ATXN 2 (no graphics): media.swagit.com/austintx/atxn2/.