Today, Austin Public Health reported that two more cases of coronavirus in its hands.
Coronavirus Rises on Sunday
Earlier this week, Carmel Fenves, the wife of University of Texas president Greg Fenves, tested positive for COVID-19, the coronavirus - Greg's presumptive test came back negative.
“Right now in our community we need to be focused on stopping the virus from spreading." Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in an interview. "So what I am most concerned about is whether or not everybody in our community is washing their hands frequently, whether they’re avoiding shaking hands"
Today, Sunday, a spokesperson for APH said that two more people have tested presumptive positive for the virus. Of those five cases, all are travel related. The test's still need further confirmation from CDC.
Friday the 13th
On Friday the 13th, Austin Public Health said it received two presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in Travis County. Those were the first two confirmed cases in the area. One was a 30-35 year old woman who lives in Galveston County, the other was a 60 year old man from the Travis County area. The man was hospitalized and the woman was sent home on self-quarantine.
The third, a woman in her 60s whose case is believed to be travel related, was confirmed Friday afternoon. APH did not confirm or comment if the woman was the wife of University of Texas president.
“We understand this presumptive positive case may concern our community, but at this time there is no evidence of community spread,” said Dr. Philip Keiser, Galveston County local health authority.
A presumptive positive case means a local test has come back positive but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not confirmed the results with its own test.
“The City of Austin and Travis County will be evaluating additional protections for the community based on these positive cases,” the city said in a news release. “At this time, we have not made any additional changes to current regulations around mass gatherings or other public health standards but will keep the public updated if this information changes.”
Austin Public Health says these first two confirmed cases has elevated the city’s response to Phase 3 of a five-phase plan, adapted from its pandemic flu plans:
Phase 1: Persons Under Monitoring
Phase 2: Persons Under Investigation (Testing in Progress)
Phase 3: Confirmed Case (No Person-to-Person spread)
Phase 4: Limited Person-to-Person Spread (Close/Household Contacts)
Phase 5: Person-to-Person Spread in the Community
The Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center remains activated.
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