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The Austin area has seen an increase in coronavirus cases as students, teachers and school staff return to face-to-face classes.
In a joint meeting of Travis County commissioners and Austin city council members, the city’s chief medical officer, Dr. Desmar Walkes, said the increase is something she expected due to different usage mandates. mask (or lack thereof) in school districts.
Walkes said the Austin Department of Public Health is seeing higher rates of contagion in schools during this back to school compared to last year, when there were more virtual learning options and districts required the use of masks.
“Let me repeat: masks stop the spread of COVID-19,” Walkes said Tuesday. “Therefore, it is important that our children count on us to protect them, sending them to school with masks at this very moment.”
The Austin-area hospital system is also in a much more stressful state compared to last year.
“This situation is very surreal because what is happening in our hospitals is very worrying,” said Walkes. On the other hand, outside the hospitals, it seems as if nothing is happening, the doctor added.
A year ago, the area registered an average of 21 new hospitalizations daily. The average has now risen to 80 per day, well above the threshold for the highest level of risk set by the Austin Department of Public Health guidelines.
More than 160 ventilators were in use and 232 patients were being treated in intensive care units Monday afternoon.
“We have surpassed our previous peak numbers,” Walkes said, referring to the use of intensive care units. “The use of respirators has also increased, and we need the public to do what they can to help us lower these numbers,” said the doctor, expressing concern about the saturation of intensive care units.
The medical director said she is hopeful that full approval of the Pfizer vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration (or FDA for its acronym in English) persuaded “those who were hesitant to get vaccinated and take us to the other side of this pandemic.”
He also said that booster shots they will be necessary for immunocompromised people as the virus continues to mutate. He urged those who are not yet vaccinated to receive the vaccine before contracting a preventable disease.
“These vaccines protect against severe COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and death,” Walkes said.
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Translated by Carola Guerrero De León.
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