Austin, Texas -- Yesterday, Dec. 17, Austin Public Health’s 7-day moving average of hospital admissions hit 50. Unfortunately, the key indicators for risk stage changes, including the 7-day moving average of hospitalizations, number of patients in the ICU, ventilator use, positivity rate, and 7-day moving average of cases are all trending upward. The next couple days of data from the key indicators dashboard and the projections from the UT Modeling Consortium will be critical as we consider moving stages, and we will be closely monitoring the trends.   

Many of the key indicators have been trending poorly in the month of December and are cause for concern. The following data is current as of Dec. 17: 

• 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases: 409 (75% increase since Dec. 1) 

• 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 hospitalizations: 50 (67% increase since Dec. 1) 

• 7-day moving average of hospital beds utilized for COVID-19 patients: 298 (37% increase since Dec. 1) 

• 7-day moving average of COVID-19 ICU inpatients: 90 (20% increase since Dec. 1) 
   

Throughout this pandemic, Austin-Travis County kept our COVID-19 numbers comparatively low not by accident or luck, but through community engagement and action. Once again, the actions we take in the coming days and weeks can either move us in the right direction or in the direction of a deadly surge like those we have seen across Texas.  

Austin Public Health has developed holiday safety guidance based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations. That guidance can be found at austintexas.gov/holidaysafety.  

All of the Austin Public Health COVID-19 dashboards can be found at austintexas.gov/page/covid-19-dashboards.  

For more information about COVID-19, visit austintexas.gov/covid19.