Coronavirus

In Austin County, 1,477 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine to protect against COVID-19, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Those records show 192 are fully vaccinated.

As part of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, vaccination HUBs were established in metro areas and rural county vaccination sub-HUBs were set up away from the major cities. Late last week, the Washington County Fairgrounds was identified as the closest sub-HUB available to Austin County residents and 2,000 doses started being administered on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The first known case of a new and more contagious coronavirus strain has been reported in Texas, in an adult male resident of Harris County who had no history of travel, according to the state health services department and County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

On Jan. 5, COVID-19 patients accounted for more than 15% of hospitals’ capacity for over a week in the Trauma Service Area that includes Austin, Colorado and Waller Counties.

With the 87th Texas Legislature preparing to convene in January, Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) as Chair of the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services, conducted the state’s first public hearings on COVID-19 recently.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Austin County, the virus hit home for County Judge Tim Lapham. “Yes, this virus is real, I have friends who have contracted it and this weekend we lost a family member to COVID-19,” he said in his weekly report Monday.