COVID-19 Positivity Rates in Austin Schools Concern Health Officials

Parents should keep children at home if they can, the district said.

The high COVID-19 positivity rates in schools in Austin, Texas have local health officials on the spot.

In Travis County, where Austin is located, the COVID-19 test positivity rate is 20.2% in high schools, 27.1% in middle schools, 19.8% in elementary schools and 10% in nursery schools.

All rates are much higher than what the World Health Organization recommends, which is to achieve positivity test cut-offs below 5% for 14 days.

Part of the problem may be that schools in the area are almost full. “Some of our superintendents report that some individual schools represent between 70% and 90% of the occupancy rate,” said Dr. Mark Escott, Acting Medical Director and Health Authority for Austin Public Health.

“It’s a recipe for disaster. It’s a recipe for epidemics in our schools,” Escott said.

Escott and the Austin Independent School District are urging parents to keep their children at home if they can, according to ABC News Austin affiliate KVUE.

“And in addition to the impact on the health of our children, on our teachers and school staff, so too is the continuity of education,” Escott said. “We will quickly see that we are going to run out of teachers to provide in-person education.”

At the same time, Austin is grappling with an increase in hospitalizations and a decrease in intensive care spaces.

This week, the state opened the Austin Convention Center as a field hospital for less severe patients with COVID-19 who need less care.

The site, which will have 25 beds, can expand to include more beds if needed, and is intended to “reduce the burden on local hospitals and help ensure Texans diagnosed with COVID-19 receive the care they need. need, ”Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.

Texas surpassed 2 million COVID-19 infections this week, making it the only state other than California to reach that milestone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There have been 31,277 deaths from the virus in the state since the start of the epidemic.

What to know about the coronavirus:

Tune in to ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every day of the week for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the entire ABC News team, including the latest news, background and analysis.