AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin-Travis County is back to Stage 3 of its COVID-19 risk-based guidelines for the first time since last November.
Although the city still has a mask mandate in effect for at least another two weeks, many people spent their day downtown without one.
“I wasn’t really worried about the mask mandate. I did wear it every now and then, but I wasn’t really big on wearing it,” said Zach Williams, who was visiting the capitol with his wife, Abby, from Amarillo.
“A lot of people, they weren’t following the mandate anyway, so now it’s just, they’re finally not breaking the rules,” Abby said about life back home.
The two are on a much-needed spring break vacation after a tough year for Abby, who is a teacher.
“There were a whole lot of tears in the last year,” she said.
Others decided to keep their masks on.
“A little skeptical and scary to be honest with you, since there is a lot of people out and the coronavirus has not disappeared,” said Alejandra Balladarez, whose dad, Marcos, is visiting from Dallas for the first time in a year.
“It’s not the same, having the person right next to you,” Marcos said.
“He was jumping around, running around me multiple times. He’s like, ‘I’m so excited to see abuelo!’” said Alejandra when her son finally got to see his grandpa.
“It was precious, you know, something you don’t see that every day,” Marcos said.
The latest data from Downtown Austin Alliance indicates more people are spending time outside their homes — shown by the blue dots in this graph:
The chart indicates people are spending more time outside their homes than they did in 2020, but not as much as they did in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, stepping out doesn’t come without hesitancy for many. As she left her students, Abby said a fear crossed her mind.
“I was worried yesterday that I wasn’t going to say bye, and I wasn’t going to see them again, because that happened last year, and it was really hard,” she said as tears well up in her eyes.
Both families hope more normal weekends like this are still ahead.
“There’s hope now. There wasn’t a whole lot of hope in the last year,” Abby said.
Downtown Austin Alliance said it will be releasing its 2021 State of Downtown report next month, along with a report called “Roadmap to Recovery + Resilience.”
It will outline different efforts the alliance said will be necessary for Austin’s downtown area to bounce back and become more resilient in the future.
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