3:33 p.m. update: Austin Mayor Steve Adler said a shelter-in-place order for Austin and Travis County will be issued Tuesday.
Earlier: Austin and Travis County are preparing shelter-in-place orders that would further restrict social movement to tamp down the spread of the new coronavirus, Mayor Steve Adler said Monday.
No timeline has been set for if and when any order would be put in place, but Adler told the American-Statesman on Monday that one could be issued at the drop of a hat if medical authorities determine such an order is necessary.
The likelihood of a shelter-in-place order appears to be growing as Dallas County became the first county in Texas to put in restrictions on Sunday. The city of Waco put in similar restrictions Monday.
“We want to make sure that we are prepared,” Adler said. “(A shelter-in-place order) is part of the emergency planning that is happening. There are discussions happening right now to that issue.”
Adler said drafts of the order are similar to Dallas County’s restrictions. While basically all social gatherings are banned, restaurants can continue to deliver or offer take out food. People are permitted to go outside to walk their pets or exercise, but must stay at least 6 feet apart from other individuals.
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Locally, limitations on social gatherings have been steadily growing since Travis County and the city of Austin ordered bars and restaurant dining rooms closed last week. On Saturday, Travis County and the city of Austin put in place new restrictions to encourage social distancing at grocery stores, pharmacies and warehouses.
A shelter-in-place order would come at the recommendation of Austin Public Health. Dr. Mark Escott, interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority, who told the Statesman on Monday he is continuing to study options that include additional restrictions for Austin and Travis County residents.
He said using computer modeling about the spread of the virus is critical to his recommendations to “ensure that our response is deliberate and measured.”
However, he added, “it’s not just a matter of what is happening here and our capacity here locally, but our country is at war, and when our friends and our family and our colleagues are fighting for life, we need to take that into consideration when determining our actions locally. We are in this together.”
Gov. Greg Abbott stopped short of issuing a shelter-at-home mandate on Sunday, preferring to leave those decisions in the hands of local authorities in part because a large majority of Texas’ counties have yet to report any confirmed cases of the coronavirus. A Statesman analysis of state data, public health authority reports and news reports from across the state showed that 658 cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed in 52 of Texas’ 254 counties as of Sunday night.
In Travis County, 79 cases were confirmed as of Sunday, the second-highest total for a county in Texas behind Dallas County.
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