APH changes its Covid dashboard

Austin Public Health has updated its Covid “key indicators” dashboard to be more in line with the CDC Community Levels and Travis County’s Risk-Based Guidelines. The dashboard now keeps track of Covid hospital admissions per 100,000 people over the last week, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by Covid patients and the total number of new Covid cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days. “We must always evolve and improve the ways to track the threat of Covid-19 in our community and hospital systems. It’s invaluable in our efforts to prevent a scarcity of ICU beds and ventilators that we’ve dealt with many times before during this pandemic,” Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County health authority, said in a press release about the change. “We must remain vigilant to prevent future surges, and this will help achieve that goal.” Currently, the risk level in the region is low, which means masking is optional for those who are up-to-date with vaccines and those who are at risk. More information about the new dashboard and Covid resources can be found here.