Dallas' COVID-19 Numbers Are 'Precarious' Amid Schools and Restaurants Reopening
Right on cue, cooler weather arrived with the beginning of fall, a welcome break from the North Texas heat. That cooler weather is the background to school openings and Gov. Greg Abbott further loosening of capacity restrictions for restaurants and retailers, which can now welcome 75 percent of their occupancy maximums. For those whose jobs are to monitor COVID-19, those things make for a troubling combination.
“We are watching all the indicators closely. [The threat level] went from red to orange, and we’re hoping we can stay in orange or go down to yellow,” says Dallas County Medical Director Dr. Philip Huang, referring the county’s color-coded guidance over what is safe to do in public. “But there are a lot of things going on right that can impact what we are seeing in our community.”
For the most part, Huang says universal masking and social distancing has been working since the Fourth of July, but with schools reopening, he is staying focused on the number of new cases, the positivity rate of testing, hospitalizations, and ER visits. College towns have emerged as hotspots in Texas and around the country as universities reopen to in-person schooling. The Texas Tribune reported that in cities where college students make up at least 10 percent of the population, COVID-19 cases are up 34 percent since August 19. The rest of the state has seen an increase of 23 percent.
“We are seeing the activity, and we are concerned because it’s very precarious,” Huang says.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2020/09/dallas-covid-19-numbers-are-precarious-amid-schools-and-restaurants-reopening/