TX and headlines
Governor Greg Abbott extended the Disaster Declaration for all Texas counties in response to COVID-19 Saturday afternoon.
The state’s seven-day average positive rate is 20.43 percent. As of August 8, 275 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized across the Austin MSA. That means 5.31 percent of active cases in the region currently require hospitalization. Of those, 96 are currently in the ICU, and 75 are on a ventilator.
Austin’s Mayor Adler said that as of Sunday morning, Austin’s infectivity rate is between 10 and 15% but that it must be below 5% for the sustained reopening of schools and businesses.
The FBI is still looking for people who were tested for COVID-19 at a healthcare facility in New Braunfels. “Authorities have reason to suspect the COVID-19 tests administered at the facility should not have been used to diagnose or rule out an active COVID-19 infection,” FBI San Antonio said.
Expert says virus transmits easier in schools with inadequate HVAC systems (It would have been beneficial to have built schools with operating windows.)
Texas leads country in nursing homes with staff shortages, and the trend is worsening. State to allow limited visitation at nursing homes, long-term care facilities. A Corpus Christi long term care facility has a hugging booth where visitors can hug their loved ones through plastic.
U.S. colleges are requiring promises from students to help contain the coronavirus — no keg parties, no long road trips and no outside guests on campus. No kidding. Administrators warn that failure to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid mass gatherings could bring serious consequences, including getting booted from school. (Yeah, as if.)
66 players opt out of NFL season due to coronavirus pandemic
Three links to a mask study by Duke.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/07/sciadv.abd3083
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/suppl/2020/08/07/sciadv.abd3083.DC1/abd3083_SM.pdf
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt says COVID-19 outbreak has caused ‘a few visits to the ER’
“By and large, people are in a pretty good spot,” Shildt said Sunday in a radio interview on KMOX/1120 AM. “There are people that have symptoms, and have had a few visits to the ER for some IVs and a little more clarity. Nobody has had to stay. But there are people dealing with – I mean, this is real. And people are experiencing a lot of the symptoms that we hear about, that are associated with this.”