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Austin Public Health changes risk-based guidelines to align with CDC recommendations

The new guidelines are tailored to people who are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines and people who are at risk.

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Public Health (APH) has updated its COVID-19 risk-based guidelines to align with the latest recommendations from the CDC. The guidelines align with the CDC's new Community Levels metric that tracks the spread of COVID-19 at the county level.

"We continue to adapt our response as we enter a new phase of this pandemic," said Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County's Health Authority. "While we enjoy the progress we’ve made, we should remember that this isn’t over yet; the potential for new variants still poses a threat."

Within the new APH guidelines, there are three Community Levels – low, medium and high – each with corresponding guidance for people who are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines and people who are at risk. These new Community Levels replace the stages that guided APH's response for much of the pandemic.

Austin-Travis County was most recently in Stage 2 of the previous guidelines. APH now classifies the area's risk as low in terms of the new Community Levels.

APH says Community Levels are determined by a combination of indicators including new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days. 

Credit: Austin Public Health
Chart courtesy of Austin Public Health.

Under APH's new guidelines, recommendations for people who are up to date on their COVID vaccines are:

  • Low: Precautions optional when gathering, dining and shopping
  • Medium: Precautions optional when gathering, dining and shopping. Masks recommended when social distancing is not possible
  • High: Use precautions when gathering, dining and shopping

Recommendations for people who are at risk are:

  • Low: Precautions optional when gathering, dining and shopping
  • Medium: Use precautions when gathering, dining and shopping
  • High: Use precautions when gathering, dining and shopping 

Precautions include wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing social distancing. APH says that at all levels, people can wear a mask if they choose, informed by their personal level of risk. The agency says people with symptoms, a positive COVID-19 test result or exposure to someone who has COVID-19 should wear a mask.

Credit: Austin Public Health
Chart courtesy of Austin Public Health.

APH says these new guidelines will be reflected in its COVID-19 dashboard, which will populate with CDC data weekly. The dashboard is expected to update Tuesday afternoon.

On March 23, both Austin and Travis County lifted all emergency rules and orders related to COVID-19.

On March 28, KVUE reported that data from APH showed a 47% rise in COVID-19 transmission rates, a week after the conclusion of the South by Southwest Festival.

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