Parents should keep their children at home if they are able, the district said.
High COVID-19 positivity rates at schools in Austin, Texas, are available to local health officials.
In Travis County, where Austin is located, the positivity rate of the COVID-19 test is 20.2% in high schools, 27.1% in middle schools, 19.8% in elementary schools and 10% in preschoolers.
All rates are much higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization, which is to get test thresholds of positivity below 5% for 14 days.
Part of the problem may be that the schools in the area are almost full. “Some of our superintendents have reported that some individual schools occupy between 70% and 90% of employment,” said Dr. Mark Escott, interim medical director and health authority for Austin Public Health.
“This is a recipe for disaster. It’s a recipe for outbreaks 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 KVUE, an ABC News Austin affiliate.
“And in addition to the impact on the health of our children, on the teachers and the school staff, so is the continuity of education,” said Escott. “We will soon see that we will run out of teachers to provide personal education.”
At the same time, Austin is facing increasing hospitalizations and declining ICU space.
This week, the state opened the Austin Convention Center as a field hospital for less severe COVID-19 patients who need lower levels of care.
The site, which will have 25 beds, can be expanded to include more beds if needed, and is meant to “reduce the burden on local hospitals and help ensure that Texans diagnosed with COVID-19 receive care.” they need it, “Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.
Texas has surpassed 2 million COVID-19 infections this week, making it the only state other than California to reach that stage, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There have been 31,277 deaths from the virus in the state since the outbreak began.
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