Travis County health officials on Sunday reported that 147 more people in the area have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 38,045, according to the county’s dashboard.
Health officials have not reported any new deaths since Thanksgiving. The county’s pandemic death toll remained at 483, as of Sunday.
The county’s number of active cases on Sunday was 2,475, compared to 2,510 on Saturday.
As of Sunday, the number of estimated recoveries in the county was 35,087, according to local health officials.
Of the 205 people in the hospital Sunday with the coronavirus within the Austin metropolitan area, 69 were in intensive care and 39 were on ventilators. That’s down from 73 in intensive care and 40 on ventilators on Saturday.
The city dashboard also reported 24 new hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the Austin metropolitan area on Sunday. The area’s seven-day rolling average of new hospitalizations went down to 32 — it was 33 as of Saturday.
The record for the highest seven-day average number of new hospitalizations for the Austin-Travis County area stands at 75.1, reported on July 8.
The seven-day rolling average of new hospital admissions is one of the main factors health officials look at when considering coronavirus-related restrictions in the city.
Of those who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the pandemic, 47% were Hispanic, according to recent Austin data. Non-Hispanic whites made up about 34% of cases; 7% are Black and 3% are Asian.
According to the 2019 census estimates, the county is about 49% non-Hispanic white, 9% Black and 7.4% Asian, and 33.6% of the population is Hispanic.
Local health officials last week released pandemic-related safety guidelines for holiday gatherings and activities and said the area had entered into Stage 4 of Austin Public Health’s risk-based guidelines.
Under renewed Stage 4 guidelines:
– Higher-risk individuals (those older than 65 and those who have chronic medical conditions) should limit social gatherings to no more than two people outside their household. They should stay home, except for essential trips such as buying groceries or receiving medical care.
– Lower-risk individuals should avoid social gatherings with more than 10 people and non-essential travel.
– Business and restaurant owners are encouraged to voluntarily reduce capacity by 25% to 50%.
– Schools are encouraged to limit attendance at sporting events to players, coaches and parents.
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