Austin Area Poised To Enter Coronavirus 'State Of Emergency'

Travis County Gains 527 New Coronavirus Cases, 10 More Deaths

AUSTIN, TX — The county's health authority said Monday the region is poised to enter a state of emergency — with the possibility of curfews — in light of upticks in the coronavirus.

Dr. Mark Escott, the interim Austin-Travis County health authority, ticked off concerning statistics related to an upward illness trend that has yielded increases in the number of cases and hospitalizations. Currently, Escott said, there are just 41 intensive care unit (ICU) beds available across the entire 11-county Austin metro area, with capacity potentially filled up completely by week's end if current illness trends continue.

ICU admissions have risen by 62 percent in the past week alone, Escott said, and total hospital admissions have increased by 106 percent since the beginning of December. Escott made his comments during a weekly Q&A session with journalists that was abruptly rescheduled to Monday morning in light of the upcoming holidays.

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"We may start 2021 with our hospitals full or nearly full," Escott said. "This is a real crisis, and we're at the beginning of that right now. Now is the day to change the risk so we can avoid that state of emergency. It is really up to all of us to make that decision to protect one another for a few more weeks."

Such protective measures involve the oft-repeated guidance now recited with mantra-like cadence by health officials seeking to stem the tide: Wearing of protective face coverings, avoiding crowds, staying home except for essential errands, washing one's hands often, avoiding touching one's face.

"I don't know anything we can't take more seriously then what we're seeing right now," Escott said. He expressed concern about bars currently operating despite orders to close — a scenario made possible through something of a loophole as an increasing number of bars operate as restaurants by providing food via mobile eateries and other tactics.

"I'm a little disappointed that bars have been allowed to reopen despite executive orders to the contrary," Escott said. "That's our No. 1 concern headed into New Year's Eve — bars have been acting as restaurants. We need them to close."

Given typically close quarters in which patrons congregate, bars have been among the hardest hit businesses in terms of restrictions. To circumvent rules, some have bolstered food truck operations to qualify as restaurants able to operate at limited occupancy. A bartender at one popular bar near West Campus recently told Patch of a tactic of adding pre-packaged sausage snacks adding $1 to each tab in order to achieve the desired food sales percentage enabling the establishment to operate as an eatery as well as a bar.

Some restaurant operators, such as those running the Via 313 pizza restaurant, have implemented creative measures to optimize clientele with use of outdoor spaces. Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

For their part, an increasing number of restaurants have opened up outdoor spaces for al fresco dining to lessen their indoor spaces. The bistro Texas French Bread at 2900 Rio Grande St. recently outfitted an outdoor space for full-fledged dining that had before been little-used. Operators of the popular Via 313 pizza joint at 3016 Guadalupe St. — where a perennial queue of vehicles line up at the curb for pickup of pies on a daily basis — recently constructed a canopy-topped outdoor section where patrons now gather at various tables.

Patrons of Via 313 enjoy lunch under a newly created outdoor space at the popular eatery on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Concerns are exacerbated given the upcoming holidays and inevitable celebrations outside residents' households: "We are deeply concerned about people getting together over New Year's Eve," Escott said. "Some of them will end up in the hospital; some will end up in ICU; some will die from it."

Come dusk, Texas French Bread does a brisk dinner service as tables with attendant portable heaters are set up outside the bistro. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Along the way, Escott said, revelers will potentially spread the illness to more vulnerable members of the community such as the elderly or those with compromised immune systems. Should upward illness trends continue, Escott added, health officials could consider implementing a curfew as early as week's end.

Texas French Bread at 2900 Rio Grande St. is among eateries bolstering outdoor space to optimize clientele amid the pandemic. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Joining Escott at the news conference were Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden; Austin Public Health Interim Assistant Director for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Cassandra DeLeon; and Janet Pichette, chief epidemiologist who leads the Epidemiology and Public Health Preparedness Division of Austin Public Health.

DeLeon expressed hope given the recent arrival of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have already been administered to frontline workers ahead of a mass inoculation of the community at large. "In the meantime," she said, "we need to continue those preventive measures to make sure we clamp down the curb and get us to a space where there's no longer a threat to the community."

Hayden urged residents to call the city's information line 3-1-1 to report egregious violations related to bar and restaurant occupancy levels. But enforcement alone is no panacea, she suggested. "We cannot enforce our way out of this, she said. "You can think about doing something today to stay home and not go out to bars to celebrate. Our hope is you will make a better choice and not go out."

Post-holiday scenarios are no mere abstraction, but confirmed through contact tracing. Recent spikes in illness can be definitively tied to Thanksgiving gatherings of residents who chose to ignore health officials' advice to spend time with others outside their own households, Escott said in response to a question from Patch. In some cases, a single person attending a Thanksgiving gathering fell ill with the virus and in other cases the entire group contracted the illness, Escott said — examples confirmed after investigation tracing efforts.

"That cycle is continuing, and that's why we keep seeing increases in cases and hospitalizations," Escott said. "We've got to break the chain of transmission that's happening. We have a vaccine, but now is not the time to take chances. Now is the time to protect ourselves. It's really that simple. Those methods work, and we've got to continue that advocacy of those simple measures to break that chain."

Just as illness sources are no abstraction, nor is the insidiously unforgiving and indiscriminate nature of coronavirus: "It's a disease that causes people to suffocate over time," Escott said. "It's a terrible disease. I know people are tired, but we need to push through this. We need to rally one more time — one more rally, a few more weeks to allow people to get vaccinated and save many, many lives."