The rolling average for new daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions has been on the decline for more than three weeks. Still, with an average of 57 admissions as of Tuesday, Austin-AG真人百家乐 County remains at the highest level of Austin Public Health鈥檚 community risk guidelines.
Resources for the area鈥檚 hospital system also remain strained. More than 200 patients are being treated in intensive care units, which have been above or near capacity for more than a month.
Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin Public Health's medical director, told a joint session of AG真人百家乐 County commissioners and Austin City Council members Tuesday that one way of helping hospitals is by working with surrounding counties to bring up vaccination rates.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be important for us to look to our neighbors, to collaborate with them and get their populations vaccinated as well,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause as we鈥檝e said many times, we鈥檙e all in this together. And our hospital systems here in the AG真人百家乐 County metroplex do all serve our neighbors.鈥�
More than 68% of AG真人百家乐 County residents 12 and older against COVID-19. In Hays County the number is 60%; in Williamson County, it鈥檚 67%.
Bastrop, Burnet and Caldwell counties are all above 50%. But deaths are higher per population in these smaller surrounding counties than in AG真人百家乐 County.
Caldwell County, for example, has a full vaccination rate among those 12 and older of 50.8%, but is reporting 245 deaths per 100,000 residents.
AG真人百家乐 County, with its fully vaccinated rate approaching 70%, has a death rate of 84 per 100,000 residents.
鈥淲e all have to work together to protect ourselves, and particularly protect our children," Walkes said. "So continue mask wearing and vaccination and social distancing and staying home when ill."
Adrienne Stirrup, APH's interim director, told the officials that the number of people in AG真人百家乐 County who are eligible to be vaccinated but haven't been shrunk by about 25,000 people in recent weeks.
Health officials continue to stress the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID, especially with the delta variant causing people to stay sicker longer, saying the vaccine is the best protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death.
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