The Travis County Commissioners Court and Austin City Council convened Tuesday to receive updates from interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott on the Covid-19 vaccination progress in the region. Thirty-eight percent of individuals in Travis County were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, while 13 percent of individuals were partially vaccinated. Just over half the county, […]
COVID-19
Posted inHousing
After yearlong ban, Austin and Travis County will let some landlords file evictions starting in June
Lee esta historia en español. Austin-area renters who have not paid rent for five months or more and have exhausted all rent assistance will once again be subject to eviction beginning June 1. Most other residential tenants and some commercial tenants will be safe from eviction until at least Aug. 1. On Friday, Austin and […]
Posted inPublic Health
Removing barriers to vaccine a top priority as supply exceeds demand through Austin Public Health
Austin Public Health is hosting a walk-up Covid-19 vaccine clinic at the Delco Activity Center this Thursday and Friday from noon-7:30 p.m. or until all its vaccines are administered. Vaccines will be available to all residents age 18 and older. No appointment is needed. If supplies run out, staffers will help schedule appointments for those […]
Posted inPublic Health
Both of Austin’s Covid-19 vaccine ‘hub’ providers are struggling to fill appointments
UT’s Dell Medical School (along with UT Health) and Austin Public Health are reporting issues getting people signed up to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Both organizations were designated by the state as “hub” providers. The state created the hub model so larger organizations – a couple dozen across Texas – could vaccinate a lot of people at […]
Posted inPublic Health
City’s vaccination task gets harder
Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott has been advising City Council members and Travis County commissioners that there was more demand than the city had available vaccine for all the Travis County residents who want to be protected from Covid-19. But as of Monday night, Austin Public Health was offering 14,000 appointments, yet […]
Posted inPublic Health
Austin health officials won’t relax Covid-19 guidance this month
Numbers tracking the coronavirus pandemic in the Austin area have stopped improving and could worsen, new projections show. The projections, released Friday by UT’s Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, show lines flattening in the weeks ahead and possibly rising. The consortium reports a 32 percent probability that the pandemic will worsen here and a reproduction number of […]
Posted inPublic Health
Local organizations step up to expand vaccine access in East Austin
Michele Rountree had reservations about getting the COVID-19 vaccine at first. But the more research she did, the better she began to feel. And when she heard the African American Youth Harvest Foundation was hosting a walk-in vaccine clinic, something clicked. She had known about the organization since she moved to Austin more than a […]
Posted inAustin
City awards second round of SAVES funds to closed music venues
The city has begun awarding grants to 28 music venues selected to receive assistance from a $5 million program created to help preserve businesses that have been largely closed since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last spring. The grants of up to $140,000 each were the second phase of awards from the Save Austin’s […]
Posted inAustin
City seeks input on post-Covid economic recovery plan
The city is taking feedback from residents on a wide-reaching plan to restructure how many departments operate, and how economic development is handled in the post-pandemic world. The Economic Recovery and Resiliency Framework is a list of 45 ways the city can create new or transform existing programs to better serve residents and small businesses. […]
Posted inPublic Health
Austin’s top doctor says possible Covid surge unlikely to overload area hospitals
New Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in the area are declining, but they are still well within the threshold to keep Austin and Travis County at stage 3 of Austin Public Health’s risk-based guidelines. The city’s interim medical director previously had said numbers might drop low enough to move down to stage 2 by mid-April. That […]
Posted inPublic Health
Austin Public Health had 2,800 Covid vaccine appointments left open Thursday
Austin Public Health opened up Covid-19 vaccine appointments Thursday evening, but by the end of the night, it still had 2,800 appointments available, raising questions about how the agency is distributing doses. This is the second week in a row it has had unclaimed appointments after a Thursday night release. Though the state opened up […]
Posted inCity Hall
Libraries set to begin reopening in May, despite City Council resolution
Amid concerns about vaccination rates, City Council has pushed back the day Austin Public Library employees will return to their physical workplaces. The change is not expected to impact a plan to begin reopening public libraries on May 10. “I really appreciate the way the public library has maintained that balance of providing a level […]