Austin-Travis County moves to Stage 4 COVID-19 risk-based guidelines

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to climb in Austin-Travis County, health leaders are officially moving the area to Stage 4 guidelines.

For people who are fully vaccinated, Stage 4 guidelines recommend masking in all situations, even when gathering outdoors. For people who are not fully vaccinated, it recommends eliminating travel and only dining or shopping through takeout or curbside service.

The move to Stage 4 comes after the area saw an uptick in community transmission rate, hospitalizations and county positivity rate, the metrics used to inform the risk-based guidelines. It also comes after holidays gatherings and before New Year’s Eve celebrations.

When asked last week about the New Year’s Eve fireworks hosted by the City of Austin, Dr. Desmar Walkes, the local health authority said they will go as planned but that they expect people not to gather to watch the show.

“That is to be viewed from afar, there are no plans for gathering, there are no vendors, no bands,” Walkes said. “We are expecting people to view it from their vehicles or in the downtown area people may be able to look at it through their windows.”

Testing sites around Austin-Travis County have seen lines that, in some cases, are hundreds of cars long after health leaders asked people to test before and after holiday travel and gatherings. Testing professionals told KXAN that the positivity rate and case numbers in Austin are likely higher than recorded because of the popularity of at-home tests right now.

People who have tested positive for COVID-19 described their symptoms to KXAN as being similar to that of having allergies, others said they ran a fever and experienced difficulties breathing.

“If you have any symptoms at all do not write it off,” Ana Lopez, a central Texas woman who is vaccinated, got her booster shot and tested positive for COVID-19 last week, said. “We’re not out of the woods so please just use some discretion.”

The CDC is reporting roughly 90% of cases in the six-state region Texas is in are omicron. While testing you would do at a pharmacy or a drive-thru site do not tell you which variant you have, and only tells you whether you have COVID-19 or not, Austin Public Health says they’re working with state and national partners to sequence test local cases.

They said it’s safe to assume there is rapid community transmission of the omicron variant in Central Texas right now.