Central Texas businesses will once again be allowed to raise their occupancy limits from 50% to 75%, as restrictions triggered by COVID-19 hospitalization rates have expired.
An order from Gov. Greg Abbott requires counties in a certain hospital region to limit capacity at businesses and to prohibit elective surgeries when coronavirus patients account for 15% of hospitalizations in the area for seven days in a row. The Austin-area hospital region, made up of 11 counties, hit that threshold about three weeks ago.
Since then COVID-19 hospitalization rates in AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County have been trending downward, according to Austin Public Health officials. The additional restrictions in Abbott’s order automatically lift when a hospital region stays below the 15% threshold for seven consecutive days. The hospital region in Central Texas, which includes AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ, Hays, Williamson, Bastrop, Caldwell, Lee, Fayette, Blanco, Burnet, Llano and San Saba counties, accomplished that Saturday.
Roughly 12% of those hospitalized in Central Texas on Friday were sick with the coronavirus, marking the lowest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the area since at least Jan. 23.
