As Travis and Williamson County starts a 2 1/2 week long shelter in place period, Austin Public Health’s Dr. Mark Escott said the area cannot let up as they battle Covid 19. “We cant take chances right now.” He pointed to ongoing efforts by health officials to ramp up testing, find more hospital beds, and protective equipment for those on the front lines of the fight, like first responders. He continued, “I will not ask them to sacrifice themselves because we failed to act.”
Dr. Mark Escott explained what brought the county and city officials to this decision. First pointing to the local Covid 19 infected count of nearly 90 cases, and adding he believes there are many more than that. He said covid 19 forecast models developed by UT, “That modeling suggests that in the short term, in the next 3-4 weeks, our hospitals could reach capacity.”
The Shelter in place order runs till April 13th with the option to go longer or shorter.
However despite ho it sounds, Austin’s Mayor Steve Adler explained that dosn’t mean resident should stay cooped up in their own home for days on end. He said it’s still okay to walk your dog and go to the store, “but when you do that…don’t do it in groups.” Citing local health officials Mayor Adler said residents need to reduce the amount of direct interactions they have with other people by 90%, the goal being: stop the spread of Coronavirus as much as possible so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with cases and more people don’t get sick.
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