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COVID-19 cases rise rapidly

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    As of Tuesday, August 10, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the Austin-Round Rock MSA, which includes Bastrop County, reached 569, and ICU admissions neared its highest levels throughout the pandemic. See this dashboard at https://austin.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/39e4f8d4acb0433baae6d15a931fa984.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Bastrop County last week was more than five times higher than it was a month ago, and the share of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Central Texas has risen from about two percent to nearly 12%.

On Thursday, the Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) shared an update on COVID-19 in Bastrop County, describing the current situation as “a red category of high level of community COVID transmission” due to a rapid rise of local cases and regional hospitalizations.

Between August 2 and August 5, 186 confirmed cases and 65 probable cases of COVID-19 were reported in Bastrop County, and two people died of the illness. During that four-day period, there were an estimated 658 active cases. 

On August 4, 11.9% of all hospitalized patients in Trauma Service Area O, the region that includes Bastrop and Travis counties, was due to COVID-19, an increase of 1.28% from the beginning of last week. Additionally, 477 were in the hospital in the five-county area for COVID-19 on August 4, with 161 patients in the intensive care unit and 100 on ventilators, according to the City of Austin’s dashboard.

As of last week, 47.49% of Bastrop County residents over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated.

“Current (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines suggest people be vaccinated for COVID-19,” the OEM update said. “According to (the Texas Department of State Health Services), unvaccinated people are at the greatest risk and full vaccination protects nearly all from hospitalization and death.”

For comparison, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were much lower around a month ago. According to state data, as of July 5, Bastrop County had an estimated 122 active COVID-19 cases, 55 people were in the hospital in the five-county area, and the COVID-19 hospitalization rate in Trauma Service Area O was 1.7%. Over the week before July 5, 29 new confirmed cases and 29 new probable cases were reported, and no COVID-19 fatalities occurred that week.