City Council Special Called Meeting Transcript (Joint Meeting with Travis County Commissioners Court) – 10/12/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 10/12/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 10/12/2021 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [9:08:10 AM] >> Mayor Adler: No action to be taken, anytime that you're ready to begin, judge. >> Councilmember Kelly is on as well. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kell >> Kelly: Us. >> Am sorry to hear about your injury. [9:09:47 AM] >> Judge Brown: The meeting of the Travis county commissioners court, it's October 12, 2021, and it's 9:09 A.M. We're meeting here at 700 lavaca street, and mayor Adler, I will pass it over to you to start your meeting. >> Mayor Adler: Judge, thank you. We'll go ahead and convene the city council portion of the joint meeting today, Tuesday, October 12th, 2021. The time is 9:10. We are shy one member for a quorum so we can't take any action but we're ready to start listening to the report. >> Judge Brown: Thank you. So I'll call to order the joint meeting of the commissioners -- Travis county commissioners court and Austin city council and I will hand it over to Dr. Walkes for a briefing. >> Good morning, everyone. Seems like it's been a long time since we've seen one another. Good news is that our seven-day moving average for hospitalizations has decreased. [9:10:52 AM] There's 28 on the 4th of October and it's down to 19 as of yesterday. We -- if I could get the slides up, please. I don't know if you can see the slides. Next slide, please. So as you see from this slide in front of you, we've had a decline in the number of cases, and we are seeing a gradual reduction in the numbers of people in hospital and icu and with ventilator use. So we're on the other side of the delta surge that we've been experiencing since the beginning of July. Next slide, please. When we look at the impact of -- [9:11:55 AM] on our hospitals, we see that 47% of the admissions to our local hospitals were -- are now from Travis county residents. The vaccination levels are listed here. We have unknown status for 168 of the individuals in hospital. So this number of not vaccinated, partially vaccinated, is only representing a little less than half of those who are in our hospital systems at this point. And this remains a situation where almost all of the individuals in hospital are unvaccinated. The picture on the right-hand side of this slide depicts where people reside who have been [9:12:56 AM] hospitalized. It gives you a bird's-eye view of the geographic -- from the geographic perspective. You see that we have people from various parts of our county and surrounding counties who have been hospitalized. Next slide, please. If you look at the distribution of hospitalizations based on race, you see that 72% are white, and 44% of those that are reported as white are hispanic. 10% or 11% are black. And then we have a larger representation of those who are reported as "Other," which is the category that people are placed in when they do not [9:13:58 AM] choose one of the other races that are listed. And 2% of those hospitalized were Asian. 52% of those hospitalized were male. 48% were female. And during this last surge due to the delta variant of covid-19, we saw a higher percentage of individuals hospitalized in the 30-49 year range than we had in previous surges. The next slide, please. The age group of 50-69 continues to be the highest percentage of those individuals hospitalized, but as I mentioned earlier, in this surge, we had a greater percentage of those in the category of the 30-49-year-olds [9:15:00 AM] hospitalized than followed by those who were 70 plus. We also had a higher number of pediatric patients admitted during this surge. And in the last reporting period of September 12th through October 10th, we had 72 admissions, 21 were in icu, and one was on a ventilator. As of yesterday, we had 8 pediatric admissions. None of those other than vaccinated. Two were in pediatric icu or picu. And one was on a ventilator. Next slide, please. We look at our schools and we see a slow decline in the numbers of cases, however, the reporting period of October 4th through 10th may indeed not be [9:16:01 AM] accurate in that we had a holiday yesterday and typically schools send in their reports on Monday. So that may be artificially low. And when I visit with this group or send a memo next time, I will update that so that number may actually be a little bit higher. There were a total of 242 cases reported in our schools. 204 were in students, 34 in staff. There are more cases in the classroom setting, and that's then followed by after-school and athletic events. We had one case that was discussed in the news where a teacher, unfortunately, passed -- had several contacts, [9:17:04 AM] close contacts, and that's resulted in two positive cases. There have been several class closures over the months that school has been open and some sports-related exposures that have been reported as well. Again, masking is -- has helped decrease spread and vaccinations are what keeps people from getting sick. And this continue to be our main avenues for protecting ourselves from covid-19. In our long-term care facilities we've had just 13 cases in the last 14 days. All of the cases that have occurred were in fully vaccinated individuals and none [9:18:06 AM] have required hospitalization. Again, showing that our vaccines are protecting us from having severe disease and hospitalizations and death. When we look at our breakthrough cases from those individuals who have been vaccinated, we see that there are -- have been several cases, 8,019, however, we have deployed over 1.6 million doses of vaccine in our county. And we also have over 70 people -- 70% of the people who are eligible for vaccinations now fully vaccinated in our county. A great milestone. And of those 8,000 plus individuals who have had [9:19:06 AM] breakthrough cases, 89% of those were symptomatic. 82 were hospitalized. So that percentage very low. The median age of those affected with the vaccine breakthroughs were -- was 72 years. 41 received pfizer, 25, modern, and j&j. And this stresses the importance of our continuing to use masking to prevent spread indoors. We've just crossed the threshold of stage three but I would urge our community to continue to -- continue those practices that have kept us safe and helped us get through this previous -- this last surge. [9:20:08 AM] The vaccine breakthroughs represent a very small percentage as I mentioned of the cases that we've seen. So again it is important for those unvaccinated to go and get that vaccine. If you look at the next slide, I want to talk a little bit about reinfections. There's still a lot of work to be done to identify how our immune system is responding to covid-19 and producing natural immunity in those that have had covid-19. As you can see from this slide that the appearance of this delta variant on the scene, there was a spike in the number of reinfections. So the fact that we're able to [9:21:11 AM] produce antibodies is important. It is our body's way of fighting off disease. However, neutralizing antibodies may not work as well on subsequent variants, and we still don't know the durability or how long those antibodies that have been produced from natural disease last. So although there is some protection conferred and we don't know how much antibodies are needed to keep you from getting sick from covid-19 after you've had covid-19, and that at this point we are still saying that the protection only lasts for 90 days. That may change with further research and assessing what our body -- our body immune system is able to do. So I show this slide to say that [9:22:11 AM] it is still important for those who have had covid-19 to go and to get vaccinated, and it is still important for us to protect ourselves from getting covid-19 by wearing masks. Busy slide -- the contents of which show that the covid vaccines that we have in the U.S. Are highly effective against covid-19 infections that require hospitalization, icu admission. Emergency department or urgent care clinic visits -- and this vaccine effectiveness is extended to populations have been disproportionately affected by sars-cov-2 or covid-19 and so it is important that we continue our efforts to vaccinate our population. And the slide following that is [9:23:13 AM] discussing the deaths that we have seen related to covid-19 since vaccines were deployed -- if you could go back to the previous slide, please -- since they were deployed in January. And we have seen 549 deaths since January. 7.8 of those were in vaccinated individuals. And the takeaway from this slide is that vaccine does protect those who are receiving them from severe disease, hospitalization and death. And those who died from our case investigator reports were those who had co-existing medical conditions. The next slide, please. Travis county admissions, again, are being reported here and, [9:24:14 AM] again, just showing that we have 47% of admissions from Travis county and the remainder from surrounding counties. So it's important that we work to continue to vaccinate our county residents and also to look at encouraging our communities that surround us and have them vaccinate as well. Next slide. We've had a huge success in vaccinating our population, but we do know that with this variant that we just -- that we still are battling, that masking works to decrease spread. So as we move -- this study is one from Germany that shows that with masking, we can have a great reduction in the number of [9:25:16 AM] cases that we have seen. And as we look at our success in working through this last surge, as we had an increase in masking, we saw a decrease in the number of cases that were hospitalized. And also as we reached that 70% mark of eligible people that are vaccinated, we saw that have another good impact and decrease our case numbers. It's important that we continue those efforts going forward. We still have people who are unvaccinated. We still have the flu to contend with. So it is important that people receive their flu vaccine. And as we move into stage three -- next slide, please -- we're going to be asking that masking continue for [9:26:16 AM] unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people indoors and outdoors where social distancing is not possible. Masking for the vaccinated will be recommended indoors, when traveling, and for those who are high risk when they are dining indoors and not actively eating or drinking. High- risk individuals are also recommended to avoid crowds and indoor venues and avoid unessential travel. There will be one change to the risk-based guidance chart that we're sharing with you today, and that will be that you will notice that instead of the stage one category showing less than five cases, it's going to say zero to four cases. [9:27:17 AM] So that's the change that you will notice. And we're going to continue to study the impact of the delta variant, work with our U.T. Modeling group to assess vaccination, masking, and other factors that impacted us during this latest surge. We know that because there's a possibility of the development of a new variant, that it is important that we look to giving our community actions and behaviors that they can take to protect themselves and their families. The primary ones being vaccination and use of masking appropriately. However, we're going to look together as a group and develop [9:28:18 AM] the strategy for communicating and messaging that so that our community can continue on with protecting itself and do so in a way that allows us to participate in the upcoming holidays in a safe manner. And with that I'll end my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Walkes. Good morning. Adrienne Sturrup, interim director of Austin public health. And I'm going to give you a brief update on covid-19 operations. I will truncate my presentation a little bit to leave time for my partners at the county to give their updates but during the question-and-answer period if there's anything that I did not mention I'll be happy to go over. So just looking at our response activities over the month of [9:29:19 AM] September, you can see that we've given over 3,600 vaccines, administered over 10,000 tests. We had over 11,000 new covid-19 cases reported and processed by our team. Our equity and nurse line took over 3,000 patients, in-bound and out-bound calls, and those include calls from the community calling about the regional infusion center. We've been doing outbound calls and helping folks to get scheduled for third doses and now that boosters are online, we continue to do that work as well. Over 1,000 families were supported through ppe and food distribution and we provided over 21 vaccination education activities within community. When we look at the doses that we've given out, you can see here the majority in our community is now pfizer. So first doses administered in [9:30:20 AM] September were 1,400. We administered 1,500 second doses, the majority of those being pfizer again. And over 6,000 -- just under 700 doses of modern. And I believe that right now third doses -- that category does include boosters and we're working on a way in our system to be able to break those out accordingly. With the tests, you can see that saint John's continues to be the most popular place for people to come to get a covid test, just under 7,000 administered. And 226 mobile tests and at our dove springs site we saw just under 3,000 community residents. And so our testing options remain the same during -- for this next operational period. We will continue to be at the dove springs rec, at St. John's, in-home testing is available if you call 311, or 512-974-2000, [9:31:25 AM] and we continue to support our partners with facility testing and long-term care shelters and other congregate living spaces and we're still providing mobile tests for our residents that need mobile tests and call 512-972-5560 and we will come out and give you a covid test. With we look at our vaccinations by week in Travis county, we can see that we're tapering off again with just one million 700 doses in our community. When we look at our Travis county residents that have not received a second dose that, green pie or teal keeps getting smaller. The last time that I was in front of you we were at about 210,000 people who were unvaccinated and now that number is at 201,000. And so for the folks that just [9:32:26 AM] have one dose, we see that it's at 107,000. And so we're making some really good progress towards getting our folks fully protected, and when we say "Fully protected," we mean those who have completed either a two-dose series of pfizer modern or have had a Johnson shot. Some -- some good changes -- not a lot in our vaccine data by race and ethnicity -- you can see week-over-week we are seeing incremental increases in our hispanic and black populations but there's still work to be done. And that is the main focus of all of our vaccine and community- based street teams, really being in community spaces and places to encourage and provide vaccine opportunities. This map is key to us helping define our operational emphasis [9:33:27 AM] for the week. The first dose map is looking pretty good. There's just that one yellow spot here, and we know intuitively it's probably a data issue, because that represents a lot of U.T. Students. We do know that U.T. Is doing a lot of good work with testing. At our last hospital call, I believe they reported a positivity rate that was less than 1% for their students. When we look at our second dose map, unfortunately, there's still some yellow here in 617. And then the 45 and then 53, but not for the lack of effort on the part of aph as well as the county collaborative. And I'm sure that they'll talk about their efforts in those areas. And so our vaccine operations, we continue to provide walk-up options. Our static locations are southeast branch library, little [9:34:27 AM] walnut creek, pflugerville and at the Delco activity center, and at Simms elementary. We did have to end -- allow the contract with the central Texas allied health institute to come to its natural end, but to make sure that we still had a presence in that community we arranged to have space at Simms. And so we will be providing modern and pfizer at those locations. And in addition to that, our mobile operations will be at seven different middle and high schools. We'll be at the Austin transition center. We'll have a presence -- a presence at the fest in pflugerville, going to even try to say that first word, and at the health worker career fair. >> Travillion: That is [indiscernible] Fest. >> I appreciate that, sir, thank you. All right, and so booster and pediatric vaccines, a lot of buzz in the news this week. And the fda committee is [9:35:28 AM] expected to meet on the 14th and the 15th to discuss booster doses of modern as well as j&j. And also to give more information on the ability to mix and match your booster doses from your original series. Of particular interest later this month, the fda will meet to look at pfizer's data for vaccines for 5 to 11 year Olds. And so planning ahead for our P.D. Vaccines when they become available, and the key points that we're looking at, making sure that we have an adequate supply in anticipation of the increased demand for pfizer. We were mostly a modern community, but we know that once these come online because they're the only option for kiddos, we want to make sure that we have enough vaccine on hand. Making sure that we're active or [9:36:29 AM] proactively addressing vaccine hesitancy with kids' parents or their primary caregivers. We're encouraging community-driven vaccine demand, so really working with our partners -- all of the things that we have talked about, those boots-on-the-ground effort to make sure that we're getting information out to folks in vehicles and in spaces that they feel comfortable and trusting. We are making sure that we have that very special workforce identified. It takes a special person I am told to give a P.D. Shot so we're steadily recruiting those nurses and offering training and support. And we know that based on the information that our eligible population will increase by and so we -- the work that Cassandra delione over disease prevention and health promotion, she leads all of the vaccine efforts and the work that she's doing with Mr. Brotherton at the [9:37:30 AM] count tow make sure that we have a concerted strategy to address P.D. Vaccines is quite encouraging, and I have hats off to both of them in their leadership in those efforts. As part of the resolution, 110, that was issued a few months back at our last meeting, I gave you an update on the initial lessons learned from the vaccine rollout. On the 25th of October, and on the 30th of October, we're going to get more community input through a virtual town hall. We really want the community's voice to be reflected in the updated booster as well as the P.D. Strategy. And so our aph, ipo, as well as well as the city's ipo team are really working to make sure that this is an inclusive event. It will be centered on equity, making sure that we have languages available for folks to [9:38:31 AM] participate and feel comfortable, and so that means simultaneous interpretation as well as breakout rooms by someone's preferred language, so we can really have that two-way dialogue. This is a place where we don't want to report out, we want to do as much listening as possible. And all of that information that we received from these engagements will be pulled into the final report that we will present into mayor and council early November. In addition to the virtual town halls, we will also have a survey that will be pushed out widely through our social media networks to make sure that we offer every opportunity for people to share what they love about getting the vaccine, what they hated, what their hesitancies are and what they feel that we should be doing more of. Part of this effort to be more in touch with community and really having that intentional [9:39:34 AM] focus is beefing up our community health worker staff. So we already had one health fair and we're having great response on our social media outlets and we'll have another health fair specifically for community health workers on the 16th. And we're hoping that we are able to recruit a strong pool of applicants that are not only bilingual, but have roots in the communities that we are focusing on to help us improve our -- our reach. And very briefly, just talking about some outreach events, we are at St. James missionary Baptist church and we served 445 families with ppe. And then on the 9th we were at ditmar park, again, having that combination of helping you to protect yourself with ppe and information about vaccines, but making sure that you get your basic needs met as well. Places that we'll be this coming week, will be the northeast early college academy, we'll be [9:40:35 AM] at the manor night out and the Mexican consulate, and the duetschen pfest and the woodview home. And that's it for the operational updates and I thank you for your time this morning. >> Travillion: Pretty good except for duetschen. We'll get it right. >> Judge Brown: We all learned something today. Chuck, or constable, are y'all there? >> Judge, chuck Brotherton. Travis county executive for emergency services. Good morning, judge, good morning, mayor, court and council. Just to update y'all quickly on the activities of our county collaborative, I'm hoping that you can see my screen. I want to show you what we have done in the last week. We did a total through our -- from last Monday through this past Sunday, we did 841 doses at [9:41:39 AM] our expo center as well as at a variety of pop-up or strike team locations throughout the eastern crescent. 841 is an uptick from prior -- the prior two weeks, where the numbers seem to be dropping. But in -- I would just note that our combined efforts, Austin public health and the Travis county collaborative in the month of September, it is important for you to understand that we did 7,500 doses in the community. Which I think that is very encouraging in the work that we continue to do is very important. Total Travis county residents served from -- by the collaborative with Travis county esd 11 as our vaccinator of record, 32,601 to date that, is starting from about April to present. Before that we were working with [9:42:41 AM] community care as our vaccinator of record and shots delivered by community care, were about 73,000. So together all told the Travis county collaborative is about 105,000 doses so far. And on this particular sheet, just quickly looking at the other number here -- 3,675 to date. Those others are found in the upper quadrant of this slide. You can see by the various colors around the country, the little dots around the country and around Texas, these are locations that vaccinators -- I'm sorry -- patients reporting reported to be from. So you can just see this illustrates just the number of people from around the country who are visiting Austin and Travis county and taking advantage of an opportunity to [9:43:41 AM] get a shot. Though, of course, there may be people who just moved here and just haven't yet changed their address. Looking down in this portion of the slide, I beg your pardon there, you can see vaccine over the past 30 days. Yellow is first dose. Red second dose. And then green, third doses and boosters. So that you can see from September through October the 10th, just the numbers of first and second and third doses. And then with the little bit more time from the end of March of this year through this past October the 10th, this graphic just illustrates the flow and the demand of folks seeking shots. And then in the upper right -- whoops, pardon me, sir -- the blue boxes here indicate just by size the zip codes and the vaccine uptake in each of those [9:44:43 AM] zip codes. And then on this -- this page you can see the number on the left-hand side, the number of strike team events held in each of our crucial zip codes. So 78653, we've had 9 strike team events from inception to date. 77824 right here in the middle is where the county expo center is located. So that number is going to be quite high. 77844, 70 strike team events to date. Over on the right-hand side, this map shows the zip code in the total number of doses for the preceding week. Again, 77824 being the highest, again, that is where our expo center is located. We'd also like to just follow up on what you heard from director [9:45:43 AM] Sturrup regarding the central Texas allied health institute. Dr. Hockaday's contract came to a natural conclusion at the end of September. Travis county is picking up a contract with Dr. Hockaday and the allied health is institute, and, judge, that is on today's agenda for a contract to transition the ccthiests from the brick-and-mortar Ana lark center to trike team and pop-up locations that they have identified to be working on from October 1st, which is going to be the effective date of our contract, through February. And likely beyond. But we are bringing a -- a six-month contract with ccthi, with two options to renew for a total of 12 months, again, to -- to help us to supplement the efforts in getting into some of our harder-to-reach segments of the community, and I'm looking forward to working with [9:46:45 AM] Dr. Hockaday. And at this time I'll turn it over to -- excuse me -- to constable George morales with constable precinct four for his updates. >> Good morning, commissioners and councilmembers, judge and mayor. We continue to focus on outreach and education doing the work to ensure that our strike teams are successful. Our mobile vaccine teams gave a combined 841 shots this past seven days. A total for the month of October was 1,454. With 109 of those given at acl. We handed out 31 flyers with 600 additional phone calls to targeted areas. We still continue to target those specific areas in the highly affected zip codes in austin/travis county. We will continue to work with aid, and targeting our schools and we have them scheduled. Along with 30 other additional clinics that we have for this week alone. [9:47:47 AM] On top of that, we -- this Sunday we will be participating with sendaro health care and Walgreens and constable four and the dove valley coalition and doing a drive-in movie this Sunday at the high school where we'll offer flu vaccines along with covid-19 vaccines. Again, that is this week and the plumbers union, manor ISD elementary and manor ISD bus drivers and senacore foundation and our static locations and the supermarkets. Turn it back over to chuck. >> And as I do like to share with the court and council just to show y'all where our various vaccine information locations are found, on the county's website, on the city's website as well as vaccines.gov and at the county landing page it's [9:48:48 AM] very easy for folks to find out where we're holding vaccination pop-up events on any given day. So click on traviscountytx.gov and go right to our vaccination page and you can see Tuesday October 12th, a variety of locations. These are Austin public health, community care, Williamson county, we've got several sites that are -- that are regular locations for aph. And our various pop-up locations as the constable mentioned at the four J.D. Markets this evening, starting about 5:00. You pick up any particular event and click on it and you can see all of the information. On the city's landing page, also very easy to get to covid-19 information, and then find locations for free covid-19 vaccination here. And then if folks are looking [9:49:50 AM] for a commercial pharmacy, then vaccines.gov, which is published both in English and Spanish, it's very straightforward, click on "Find a location" and enter in a zip code, and I would enter in 78612, and within five miles, and then find a commercial provider, a pharmacy. What you see here, folks, is this really underscores the need for us to continue doing what we're doing because in some of our eastern crescent zip codes there certainly aren't commercial pharmacies available. So we are providing a very important service in those -- in those parts of the county. And I will stop sharing my screen there, judge, and turn it back over to you and the mayor for questions. >> Judge Brown: Thanks, chuck. We'll go through the regular order of questions and I'll start with commissioner gómez. [9:50:51 AM] >> Gómez: I don't have any questions, judge. Just a comment -- I'm impressed with the enthusiasm in which the collaborative team continues to go out and to contact people, getting them to get vaccinated, and so for that I'm very, very thankful. So keep it up. Thank you. >> Judge Brown: Thank you. Commissioner Shea. >> Shea: Thanks, judge, and as usual thanks to all of our incredibly hard-working staff. I don't know when constable morales gets any sleep. But I especially want to call out -- they set up a pop-up vaccination set-up at the wells branch national night out, which I don't know how many go, but hundreds at least. And they have just really been strategic and smart about going to where the population is that still has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the community. And really, really trying to help to educate folks, get them [9:51:51 AM] past their hesitancy or their -- or the wrong information they have heard about the vaccine. So I just really want to acknowledge constable morales and his whole team and chief Bailey, everybody who has been working so hard to really reach the population that continues to have the lowest rate of vaccinations and some of the highest rates of spread of the covid virus. So hats off to all of you, and I just wanted to really just acknowledge the work that our strike teams at the county have done in trying to find the people and going to where they are. So thank you all. >> Judge Brown: Thanks. Commissioner Travillion. >> Travillion: I want to echo what my colleagues have said. I really appreciate the time that has been taken and the -- and the care that has been given. You know, certainly when we think about, you know, the effort that has been put together -- not only across the [9:52:54 AM] county, but particularly with our pop-ups, I think that significant work has been done. We still see that our numbers need to grow, and -- and what I would like to do with the constable is challenge him for the next several Friday night football nights. Pflugerville is playing Weise at the field on Friday. So I might have to challenge you to be at that game and if there's a precinct 4 versus a precinct 1 game, I want to challenge you on that one too. Let's see how many community events we can get out to between now and the end of the football season. But I do plan to challenge you during basketball season as well. So just wanted to point that out. So Friday night at the field -- I'll be looking for you. >> Judge Brown: Awesome. Good idea. >> Thank you, commissioner. Just to let you know that I do have another team member on this [9:53:55 AM] team that I would accept that challenge but I will clear with him first. And, secondly, when it comes to basketball, we know that Aikens and del valle is rocking that show, so we will accept that as well. >> Travillion: I might have a hamburger on one of those as well, we can talk about it. >> Judge Brown: Commissioner Howard? >> Howard: Yeah, I think that I want in on this Friday night fun. Thank you, guys. Thank you for working so hard. I wanted to ask Adrienne about the slides on the community health workers recruitment effort. And the speak-up Austin. If you could just talk for a minute about the collaboration, like, between your department and your communications team at the city. Are you having to drive that work? Or is the communications team driving some of that work? How are y'all doing that? >> We've been in this so long, I mean, it's kind of likely that I [9:54:56 AM] had a sleepover and had someone else's socks on and you took someone else's bag home. The lines have definitely been crossed. But aph does lead the majority of the efforts but with super support from the city's cpio team. >> Howard: All right, thank you. And I was also curious with chuck or somebody, like, where are we with requesting any reimbursement from FEMA or the feds on -- on all of the money that we continue to spend? It's probably not FEMA. But is there any news on the reimbursement process? >> Commissioner Howard, we continue working very closely with our budget office and our auditor's office to make sure that we are tracking all of our expenses. We know from long experience that the FEMA reimbursement process takes time and so the documentation is the key, and we continue doing that. We are identifying just about [9:55:56 AM] everything that we are doing at this point under the FEMA public assistance grant guidance. Should be reimbursable and I just emphasize "Should" because sometimes the rules change. But, again, the most important thing for us to be doing at this point is tracking our expenditures and that is what we're doing and being very vigilant about doing that. >> Howard: Is -- you know, is it open to submit your paperwork for reimbursement? Or is the country not there yet? >> No, I believe that some of these things have been submitted. I hesitate to get too far outside my line, and I need to check in with our auditor's office and our team at emergency management office, just to make sure that I understand exactly what has been submitted so far. >> Howard: Okay. Thank you. >> Judge Brown: Thank you. This question I think is for director Sturrup or Dr. Walkes. [9:56:57 AM] So I first want to thank you for all of the efforts that you're undertaking to get input and raise awareness of pediatric vaccines. That will come out it sounds like very soon, which is great. One wrinkle on it -- so I called my pediatrician's office, I have two kids, 5 and 6, to see if I could get on a list or a wait list or a schedule, something, if that is to become available. And they let me know they don't do flu -- or covid vaccines at all. They haven't been doing them for 12 to 17 year Olds. And another friend of mine, her office doesn't do them, her pediatrician doesn't. And I'm guessing that as we all know that with the joys of pfizer are that it's really hard -- especially compared to modern -- to prepare. And it takes, you know, we had a whole team of students from del valle ISD mixing it at circuit of Americas and we're sort of supplying it to different locations around the county at one point. But that's not something to be underestimated, just how difficult it is, especially I [9:57:58 AM] would imagine for these really small pediatrician offices. I think my pediatrician has five doctors and the other one that I heard from has three. So I can't imagine just the logistics of how that's working. But I was wondering -- I know that we are -- I guess that the hope would be that pediatricians offices would help to vaccinate children when this becomes available. But if that's not the case, could we try to get a handle on that and see if there's some way that working with -- I don't know, our hospitals or with our great vaccine team from ascension or George that we could make offer to prepare vaccines and distribute them out to pediatricians offices? Obviously, don't have the answer to that, but just wanted to see if y'all could focus on that maybe over the next week to see if there's -- if -- if there really is the case that a lot of pediatricians offices aren't offering it, then I feel like we really need to come up with another plan, or help them to offer it in some way. [9:58:58 AM] >> Travillion: Judge? >> Judge Brown: Yes, sir. >> Travillion: It seems like since public schools are mandatory and a lot of these kids will be in school, could we not coordinate with a lot of our various school districts and work through a school nurses program? Maybe that's the easiest. We'd have to mobilize it there. >> Judge Brown: Absolutely. And we are doing that. I've met with constable morales about trying to do that first week in del valle. I just remember someone from aph saying we were also relying on pediatricians to do it. I agree. That's probably the best way. But if we're in a scenario where kids are going to have to get vaccinated yearly for covid or coronavirus or something, it seems like figuring out now how to make that a part of -- when kids come in for their well exams at the pediatrician, to do that or when they go back to school. But your point is a really good one, working with the ISDs is something that some folks are doing. >> Travillion: I will [9:59:58 AM] volunteer to reach out to the African American physicians community so we can organize. I'll volunteer. >> Judge Brown: That's awesome. This is a real opportunity to try to reach out to African American populations, kids first, next in del valle, and manor and pflugerville. And I really do hope that we can focus on that. But director Sturrup, any thoughts on -- or Dr. Walkes, on the pediatrician angle? >> I'll say two things and then allow Dr. Walkes to comment. I appreciate you doing some of the legwork. I'd be curious to see what the response will be from retail pharmacy because they are the largest provider to date of vaccine in our community. And so I'd want to see the Walgreens and the other partners we typically partner with, what their stance is on that. There's some logistical nuances [10:00:58 AM] to us providing vaccine to a pediatrician's office because there are separate provider -- they are a separate provider and it can be done. I think where our space would be is education and support, but definitely open to having the conversation. So for me, it would be one to get a handle on what the retail pharmacy's expectations are in this space, and two to have those conversations within the pediatric networks and perhaps Dr. Walkes can help with this to see what supports, if any, they would need in order to be a provider. Dr. Walkes, did you want to add anything to that? >> No. I think you're covered it, director Sturrup. The nuance with the pfizer vaccine is of course, as everyone knows, the storage and handling of that particular product. [ Laughing ] >> And I think that in our vaccine coalition discussions [10:01:59 AM] that those issues can be discussed and we can flesh out how we can best assist. >> Judge Brown: Great. Thank you very much. Mayor, I will pass it on over to you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Colleagues, let's begin with mayor pro tem, district 4. >> Harper-madison: Thank you, mayor, I appreciate it. This was another winner in a series of comprehensive meetings where most of my questions have already been answered. The last question I have is about training for providers of immunizations for small humans. I know that can be a challenge. And so I appreciate that y'all are already thinking about providing specifically training. The other question I was going to ask was whether or not central Texas allied health institute was going to be considered in that pool about [10:02:59 AM] potential providers. But then I hear that the county is taking up the item today for the arrangement between the county and central Texas allied health institute, in which case the one question I do have is, what does our provider pool look like? Is it sufficient, or are we still deficient on providers of immunizations? I'm not sure who the question is for. Maybe director Sturrup? >> I'll take a stab at it. In the training they say, if you don't know the answer, say I'll get back to you. But I think we're going to see the same problems we're seeing with the adult vaccine in the places where there are not a lot of infrastructure. From a public health perspective, it's important for us to be able to fulfill our role and be that safety net [10:04:01 AM] indigent care provider of vaccines. That being said, I understand that we also have a duty to the larger community. And we'll work with our partners. Community care is a huge player in this space, so to reach out and have conversations with them about what their plans and capacity will be with respect to providing pd vaccines will be important. Thankfully, we already have those networks in place through the vaccine coalition. Dr. Walkes in her wisdom inviting the health authorities from our surrounding counties. And so we can really have that Travis county focus, but understanding that what happens in our neighboring counties impacts us as well, making sure we're providing information and resources to them. And so I believe that we have enough resources in place to take on a significant role for the communities we usually serve. We have to have more conversations to see what we can do beyond that. [10:05:05 AM] >> I appreciate that. Thank you. It sounds to me as though there's an opportunity here to preemptively do some capacity-building in that space. I look forward to continued conversations. >> One thing I will add is that we're in the process of negotiating a -- putting out a solicitation for a turnkey vaccine provider, which the organization that you mentioned will be encouraged to apply. And so key to that will be the ability to give pediatric vaccines and the experience working in community-based settings and servicing diverse communities. So when we're looking at that solicitation, we're making sure that we're attracting a vendor that can fill those needs. >> Thank you. So, I first want to say thank you to the Travis county collaborative, the strike team, [10:06:06 AM] for all your hard work. I know that y'all are giving out vaccines. People were getting vaccinated during the acl music festival. I appreciate our public health department and the team there for your incredible outreach efforts. It was really nice to hear about the upcoming community town halls that are being planned for later this month, and the intentionality behind being inclusive and creating that space for folks to provide feedback on how we deliver vaccines in Austin. I appreciate y'all leading the charge and holding those opportunities later this month. Thrilled to hear about us moving forward with the hiring career fair for community health workers and to see that investment that the city has made, and that we have also received federal funding for move forward and see efforts to increase and ensure that we have a robust community health workforce at the ready is [10:07:08 AM] exciting. So, I already shared it out, let the public know, hey, if you want to join our team and become a community health worker, go to montopolis rec center and find out more information. One more comment I wanted to make is around the pediatric vaccines. Some of the feedback that I'm hearing from my community is the need for some type of way where in school settings, so that the kids can get vaccinated without the parent physically present. I know that that was something that's come up, having a process in place where parents can sign a waiver to allow their child to get vaccinated while in school was something that has been talked about. So I just wanted to bubble that up so that's part of the conversations that we're having with the school districts, is understanding that that is an option that I've heard some parents want to see happen, just to make it easier for folks, especially working families who might not be able to schedule multiple kids with their pediatric doctor and/or might not have access to that [10:08:10 AM] pharmacy. And lastly, you know, my question is around incentives. We know that governor abbot has added to the call or has issued an executive order regarding prohibiting any entity from having a vaccine mandate, thereby making it harder for folks -- for us to help ensure that we have a vaccinated community. And so my question is, knowing that that is happening or will happen, or has happened, what can we do regarding incentives? Director Sturrup, if you can speak to -- I know we had an incentive pilot program that we held up for a little bit. But what is our plan around vaccine incentives and/or what are you hearing from the business community about, you know, employers and what they're doing to ensure that employees are getting the vaccine? I'd be curious to hear about this effort, knowing that we now have state regulation [10:09:11 AM] prohibiting those type of requirements. >> And so, we have initiated a purchase of gift cards to continue that pilot. [ Laughing ] And we are just waiting for that transaction to be complete. Once our corporate purchasing finishes the process and we acquire the gift cards, I think I heard December or January this morning when they were giving the updates, we will roll that out. Our focus will be on making sure that communities get that initial protection. So it will be focused on first and second doses, strategically in the areas that we still see on our map that are not at that 70% mark. And so the rollout will be quite different from the pilot. We learned a lot about that. And our hope is to work with our partners in the collaborative [10:10:11 AM] because they're doing really good boots on the ground work to see where those spaces are that we need to be once we have the gift cards in hand. As far as the business community, I think the city of Austin has set a really good example with the incentives that they've provided their employees. We can do some additional research and share what we're doing. That would be a task for our corporate cpio team. And some of the things that we are doing as a city that if you are vaccinated and you unfortunately contract covid, then you get special covid leave to help you recover. It doesn't have to come out of your sick time. Other things that we've heard is that there is an adjustment to insurance premiums, much like the tobacco premiums for folks who are not vaccinated. Those are some of the creative ideas we've implemented as a city and I've heard in [10:11:11 AM] community. But we can get with cpio to figure out how we can have a communication strategy or push to engage our partners in the business community with those conversations. >> Fuentes: Thank you, director. That's helpful information and I appreciate your work on that. Glad to hear that the aph vaccine incentive program will continue. I would like to encourage us to have that sooner rather than december/january knowing just how critical and important it is to have that first layer of protection. But thrilled to hear progress moving forward. Thank you. >> Councilmember Fuentes, if I may, just to update y'all on what the county is doing, at the court's voting session later this morning, we'll be hearing a little bit more about the program that we're exploring, which is something that emulates what Harris county has been doing, where we may partner with [10:12:12 AM] community organizations to support their outreach efforts to bring in folks for vaccinations. So, I don't have the details in front of me right now, but that is something that I commissioners court will be hearing more about later today. >> Fuentes: That's great. Thank you. I'm excited to hear more about that and I love that it's a collaboration and partnership with community organizations. And so thank you, Travis county, for all the work that you're doing. It seems like y'all have a pretty packed agenda today. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Renteria. Thank you for being with me today on the dais. It's kind of lonely just you and I here. Go ahead. >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. I just want to find out, you know, with the acl that we just had, how many positive [10:13:12 AM] infections did we have on week one? >> Good morning, councilmember. We have had reports of a handful of infections and we're still doing some ongoing case investigations for the cases that we've been presented with in the last week and we'll be doing that going forward for the next 14-day period. That's when we're beginning to be looking to see what the impact has been. But so far it's been just a handful. >> Renteria: Thank you. When I went there last week, I did notice a lot of people that they all had their masks on when they came in, but as soon as they got out on the other side they took it off. And I was really concerned. But it seemed like what acl did with mandating that they had to show a vaccination card or a document saying that they tested [10:14:13 AM] negative in the last three days -- you know, it's a reminder to the public of what we can do, you know, that we can have safe activities if you're vaccinated. They can come out and have a good time, you know, and not have to worry about getting the covid. So I really want to thank acl for what they did. And, you know, it was -- I was very worried at first, but when I heard the report of the -- of how many infections were linked -- or positive results that were linked to acl, it was really a relief to see that. And I just want to remind the public this is what we can do if everybody gets vaccinated. And so please, get your covid vaccine and let's enjoy the holidays that are coming. [10:15:15 AM] Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: Thank you, mayor. And my chief questions I had written down were the same two that councilmember Fuentes asked. >> Mayor Adler: Can you all hear Greg? Can you speak up, Greg? >> It looks like we lost him, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: I think so. Here he is. >> Casar: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: You need to speak up. >> Casar: Okay. Sorry. My two questions were councilmember Fuentes' exact two, because in my community I'm hearing the same question about a permission slip at school and about incentives. And I would show you my notes proving those were the same two, but I don't think you could read them. [10:16:15 AM] But director Sturrup, I don't know if you actually got to the question of permission slips in responding to her question. So I think it would be really useful for us to hear whether or not y'all are already coordinating with the superintendents, or whether it would be useful for us to reach out to principals at schools, because there have been a lot of families -- I've had several meetings with folks trying to spread the word who have said that this is a really persistent issue for people, is finding the time to get off of work and coordinate with their kid and be there at the same time as a pop-up. And when we talk about these thousands of kids who could soon become eligible, if everybody could get sent home in their backpack a permission slip they could just sign, which we're so used to, you know, signing a thing, coming home in your son or daughter's backpack, it could be really efficient. It could be helpful for you to lay out to us if there's anything the commissioners or council could do to help that be [10:17:17 AM] universal. >> I believe that the will is already there. Dr. Walkes and I meet with the superintendents for the county. And that has been brought up. And so they're in full support. The operations team's work with individual campuses, we have relationships with the school nurses there. And so our program staff have said that it is do-able. And we're coordinating with the specific campuses and the school nurses there to figure out the process that would work for that particular location. And so at this time I don't believe anything needs to be done. Everyone understands the urgency and the need to make it as convenient for parents as possible. And the work is progressing. >> Casar: I appreciate that, director. And just given that commissioner Travillion mentioned it, and councilmember Fuentes stole the question from me, I think we're hearing similar things, right, in our communities. [10:18:18 AM] They may be different but they are linked in so many ways. All three of us raising that is proof to me that if we get that done it will be a big step. So, thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Thank you. I appreciate the information. I don't have any questions at this time. I would say that I think it's important for the community, again, to see that we've been able to progress in the right direction and just want to urge, as my colleagues have, that people get vaccinated. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Kelly. >> Kelly: Thank you. I'm just curious, with us now moved into stage three guidelines, what that effect might have on city employees that are masking in city buildings, if there's any effect [10:19:22 AM] whatsoever. >> Go ahead, director. >> Well, I was going to say, as long as the health authority's recommendations are for masking to -- indoors are in effect, our aph would support the city manager in keeping that policy in force. And so I'll allow you to comment, Dr. Walkes. >> I would just recommend that we proceed with the same safety measures that we know have worked thus far. We're going to be mitigating for covid and for other respiratory illnesses going forward as this is the season for that. [10:20:22 AM] And we're already seeing some increases in the numbers of flu cases. So, encouraging vaccination for both covid and flu is going to be important. And then taking that extra layer of protection of masking, particularly in situations where there may be high-risk individuals involved in the group settings, in workplaces, I think all of those things make sense going forward. >> Thank you for that. My office has been getting lots of questions from city employees, and so that clarification is very helpful. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember pool. >> Pool: Thanks. I just wanted to remark again on the really great decline that we're seeing in our numbers. That spike is really abating and that's terrific. And it's because people are really pressing forward on getting their second [10:21:24 AM] vaccination. Our numbers there look really good. And we are persisting in wearing masks where indicated. I can see why Dr. Walkes, you would want to hold off on making statements about not masking inside for city employees, because we really do need to kind of push that declining line even further. And it's for muscle memory, better simply to continue to wear the masks rather than to be ping-ponging back and forth. So, thanks for your steady hand and director Sturrup, we really appreciate you and also the folks who are on your teams behind you and also at the county. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you, mayor. Yes, I certainly appreciate all [10:22:24 AM] the hard work that's going into making sure people have vaccinations. My question is about a timeline. I know you said that later this month on the 26th the fda will be discussing the pfizer shot for kids aged 5-11. Do you have any idea of how long they might deliberate, or if if they were to approve the shot for the younger kids, how long until the rollout would happen? >> Typically that takes at least two weeks or so. And that's barring any requests for further information or hiccups along the way. We're waiting with bated breath. Hopefully it will be our Christmas present at the very least. But this is one of those wait and see things with regards to making sure that our children 5-11 are safely vaccinated, so. [10:23:29 AM] >> Ellis: Thank you. So it sounds like there might be a chance that some kids could get shots before Thanksgiving, and maybe a second shot by Christmas, but people should still just wait and not assume that that's going to happen quite yet. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Ellis: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Thank you. Thanks to all on the call for your tremendously hard and continued work. It's really, really encouraging and just awe- inspiring, because I know you've been working so very hard and so concertedly for such a long period of time. So thanks to you and all of your staff. Just a couple quick things. The first is that I love the idea of having the parent signatures. I know aid has done that in the past for flu vaccines, not can I consistently and not every year, but several years ago we had an [10:24:31 AM] option to sign up and have our kids get vaccinated for flu in the schools, so that's a really dynamite idea. Thank you for the update. I know the council's public health committee had asked for an update on central Texas allied health's contract and work. I appreciate the way you wove that into today's presentation, both explaining that the city's the contract will end, but they will be encouraged to apply for some of the upcoming contracts and the county is considered a considering a contract with them today. That's very helpful. I look forward to seeing their community-based work continue this effort. We really need them. And just lastly, as you consider football games, which are -- as a new high school parent, I am overwhelmed at the number of people who show up at football games from across the community. It's a great opportunity. So thanks, commissioner [10:25:32 AM] Travillion, and others, for mentioning that. I wanted to mention marching band contests which seem to be going on in multiple places every weekend, and sometimes twice a week. And those also attract hundreds of people and they're not just the students performing, but their families. I would encourage our public health folks and those of you getting out with mobile vaccine clinics to think about marching band competitions as well. Thanks again for all your work. >> Travillion: The band members show up at the football game, too. >> Tovo: They do. But you've got a captive audience on Saturdays with all the sinlings -- siblings waiting for hours to hear their families. But you're right, football games would certainly capture those folks, too. >> Mayor Adler: Great. Thank you. Councilmember alter? >> Alter: Good morning. I'll join my colleagues in thanking all of the folks who are helping to keep us healthy and safe. [10:26:32 AM] I wanted to just make a comment about the earlier remark about you need a special person to do the pediatric shots. That's absolutely true. They are doing flu shots at the high schools right now where you do consent. I would be very unlikely as a parent to let my child get a shot without me there if they were in elementary school or younger, especially if you have a child who does not like shots. So I just would encourage you to make sure that there are times, maybe after school or something, when parents can be there with their child. I think it's not going to get that far for the younger ages that will be newly eligible by doing the signatures alone. There may be some parents for whom that's fun, but that would not -- fine, but that would not have worked with my children, [10:27:34 AM] and I just want to encourage you to think about both of those especially if we're talking about that younger age. And I'm glad to hear that you're recognizing the difference in how you give shots to those younger folks. So, thank you for thinking ahead on that. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. I want to ask a couple questions here relative to moving from stage four to stage three. Exciting to see that we've done that, made that move. I think it's something the community can look at as a recognition of the effort that the community has put forward to get vaccinated. The numbers continue to go up, although there are still over 200,000 people not yet vaccinated that are eligible to be vaccinated. But also people that are wearing masks in situations where [10:28:34 AM] they're in close proximity with other people, especially for an extended period of time. There's kind of a reward associated with that, and that's seeing the number of cases and hospitalizations go down. So we've moved to a daily average count now of 19, which is significantly below the 30 number that we start taking a look at whether or not to move to stage three. And it's actually fairly close to the 15 number that would move us from stage three to stage two. But even though we've made those movements, you're still urging people to be cautious and to still maintain the precautions as best we can in order to preserve this. And I want to talk about this for a second because I know that the public's going to see us going from stage four to stage three as a sign that we can kind of let up. So my first question, Dr. [10:29:36 AM] Walkes, have you seen any kind of modeling from the university of Texas that shows what happens if we still maintain the precautions as opposed to we really relax on those precautions? Have you seen any modeling from the university of Texas with respect to that? >> Yes, sir. And with continuing to toe the line and take those precautions, we could have fewer cases and avert having another spike in cases. The delta variant is still 99% present in our community and with the still-unvaccinated individuals present in our community, it's important that we do what we can to protect ourselves and others from having [10:30:36 AM] another spike in cases from covid. And as I mentioned, respiratory illnesses are going to be the going concern in this period of time, in the fall and winter months. And with holiday gatherings, indoor gatherings, the spread of respiratory illnesses is going to be something that we're all going to be contending with. So, with continued use of masking indoors in situations where you're with unvaccinated individuals or individuals who are symptomatic from respiratory illness, you'll be best served and protected by wearing a mask or avoiding those situations, particularly if you're someone that's at high risk. If we go down into lower stages and we don't read the room, so [10:31:36 AM] to speak, in those situations that we're going to find ourselves in in the holiday season, we could have another spike in cases because of the numbers of unvaccinated individuals that we have with regards to covid. >> Mayor Adler: So, I had the opportunity to see the modeling from the university of Texas that I was asking about that you just confirmed. I want to point that out to the media as well. If someone wanted to get access to that, two different models that show our numbers coming down and what happens if we're continuing to be cautious, and what happens if we're not, and the modeling from the university of Texas, which has been uncannily accurate for us in guidance, shows us what could happen just from covid coming in this winter. You also mention that there are potential complicating, kind of, factors. And one that you mentioned was [10:32:36 AM] the flu. There was a chart that we saw every day almost for a year I think -- we're not seeing it now -- that compared flu in prior years to flu as we were going through this period of time a year ago. I sent a copy of that link, I think over to the county to see if that was something that they might be able to pull up. There it is. This is a chart that you gave to the commissioners court and the public, and to the council that showed the percent of flu for the three years plus blue, which was last year. And this chart, the blue line obviously continued past February. I just pulled this one. But you can see what the prevalence of flu was in the 17-18 season, but also the 18-19, also 19-20. [10:33:36 AM] Last year in the 2021, we said to the public, please help us with flu so that we're not filling up our icus, which you can see we did in those prior years. We were able to keep that blue line low. But of course we had mask mandates then and we were doing all kinds of things like that. That blue line pretty much extended, you know, pretty much below 2% the whole rest of the way, didn't it? >> So I can show you the most recent version of that if you'd like to see it. >> Mayor Adler: That would be great, yeah, if you have that. >> Sure. >> Mayor Adler: Because that was my question. Can you go back to showing us and the community that chart so we can watch the flu situation. >> Can you see my screen? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> So, the red line is the [10:34:39 AM] 2020-2021 flu line. And you'll see as I mentioned a few minutes ago, we're starting to see a slight increase in the number of cases. And so we'll be tracking that going forward. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> And that's why we've been urging not only here in our county, but across the nation, for our patients and community members to get flu vaccinations as well. >> Mayor Adler: Would you please add a fifth color to that chart and have the 21-22 season beginning with the first of October, I guess is when the chart -- so that we can see what's happening? >> This is prepared by the department of state health services, so they'll add . . . >> Mayor Adler: They'll add the 21-22 chart back to the left [10:35:41 AM] in I guess a different color starting in October? Could you start showing us that chart as part of the report so we can continue to watch that? >> Sure. >> Mayor Adler: And the reason I ask those questions is sometimes -- two concerns. First is we go below 30 and the public doesn't understand why when we cross 30 we don't immediately go into stage three. And if we were to cross 15 here soon, you might not automatically go into stage two. And even as we go down in stages, we're continuing to ask the public to remain cautious and that's because there are other things that you take into account in setting the stages other than just hospital admissions. And I want to kind of give kind of like a peek into that room, that insight so that the public can understand what's going on in your analysis of the data and the like. [10:36:41 AM] The other factors that you look at, other than hospital admissions also includes things like the positivity percentagein the community, right? >> Correct. >> Mayor Adler: You said today it was 5.9, which is certainly better than the 12, 13, or close to 15 that we've seen in the past and the double digits we saw a month or so ago. But 5.9 is not where we want to be. My recollection is last year we were trying to get it down to less than 2% positivity in the community, or something like that, am I remembering that right? >> We'd like it to be 0, yes. >> Mayor Adler: Right. So there are going to be gradations. If 12 or 15 would be red, just looking at positivity, you know, 5-10 might be, you know, yellow or Orange, you know. I don't know what the colors would be. You'd need to do that. [10:37:42 AM] But that's an indicator that we look at that tells us at 5.9 we still need to be cautious because it's like kindling. That could easily -- a 5.9 -- get out of hand. In addition to positivity, you also take a look at the flu level, the flu cases as we come into the season, how many people are having flu, how many hospitalizations we have for flu or what the positivity rate is for flu like on the chart that we just saw. So even if the covid numbers are going down, that would indicate to us lower covid, if the flu numbers are going out, that make us more risky and more susceptible if we do have -- as we've been seeing every two or three months -- a spike. It's going to put us in a really bad place. >> Mhmm. >> Mayor Adler: So you also look at flu numbers. Another thing that you mentioned, I think, that the public needs to remember is you take a look at the total number [10:38:44 AM] of our population that is still unvaccinated. So we're over 200,000 people. If that's worthy of, I don't know, a yellow or an Orange, if we got to below 150,000 then that risk level could go down. If we got below 75,000 our risk level would go down. But so long as we're having that high a number, that's also a reason for us to continue to be cautious even though the hospital admission number stage is going from five to four to three and at some point we'll be going to two. >> And I'll say masking. And I'll show this last thing before -- for everybody to look at. And this is from the Carnegie Mellon assessment of how we're doing with regards to masking. And you can see that in the [10:39:45 AM] latter part of -- during June our masking rates were lower. And then as the pandemic surge from delta started and we implemented the stage changes, that our masking rates went up. And if you look back at the slide that I showed you earlier with regards to our case numbers, those started to decline as well. So. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. So, again, I think that's a really good graph for us and the community to see, that our behaviors have in fact changed. That change is happening at the same time as we're seeing an impact of these kinds of behaviors and the like. It also helps us understand why it is that even with the stages going down, you're still urging people let's not go back to where we were in June or July, because we saw what happened [10:40:46 AM] when we relaxed that much in June or July. I don't know, Dr. Walkes, if there's a way for you to create a dashboard or something that gives to the public quickly the ability to have insight or to see these other factors that you are considering, but if that's something that you could develop, I think that would be a really helpful dashboard for the community to be able to take a look at real quickly in maybe a way that indicates to them whether we're doing good or not going good with respect to some of the these other factors that you take into account when you're deciding whether or not to make stage changes. And then the last thing I'll say before I turn it back over to you, judge, I'm still real confused by the governor's order, ga40, yesterday, that gives directions to private businesses about what they can do in their establishments. I mean, it just seems to me to [10:41:49 AM] be really antibusiness and a real, real limitation of the freedoms and liberties for someone to say, in my own private business, just like I require people to wear shoes. Some businesses can do that. Some businesses cannot do that. But to say to businesses that you can't do that to protect their employees, or their customers, and then let customers and employees decide if that's a place they want to work in, I just don't understand it. And it just seems to be really inconsistent with so much, as I've heard in the past and the principles espoused by the governor and the leadership. But I would still point out as I read that, it still allows for [10:42:51 AM] testing mandates. It doesn't set a limitation on the ability to be able to do testing mandates, or to let people then opt out of a testing requirement because they have a vaccine. It doesn't require anyone to get a vaccine, but if someone has voluntarily chosen to get a vaccine, it enables them to opt out of a testing mandate or requirement, kind of like what we saw at acl this past couple weekends. And my hope is that more employers and private businesses, and activities, will adopt that testing mandate with that entirely optional vaccination opt-out provision. And again, I want to thank everybody. I think the county strike team's doing a great job getting into the areas that we need to get into, but not just them, as well [10:43:52 AM] director Sturrup, aph is also focused on those populations as well. And you're making great headway in that, too. It is way too slow, but as you said, it is not for want of effort and there's still progress being made. With that, judge, I'll turn it back over to you. >> Judge Brown: Thank you, mayor. And I just have one question for you mayor. Why don't elephants like computers? >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry, what? >> Judge Brown: Why don't elephants like computers? [ Laughing ] >> Mayor Adler: I don't know. I love dad jokes. What's the answer? >> Judge Brown: They're afraid of the mouse. >> Mayor Adler: Afraid of the mouse. >> Judge Brown: That's from your local 5-year-old. >> Travillion: They're definitely improving. [ Laughing ] >> Judge Brown: Thank you. Thank you, councilmembers and commissioners and everybody, and especially thanks to aph, Dr. Walkes, and to the Travis county [10:44:53 AM] folks, constable morales, chuck, and esd 11 for all the work that you are doing. We will adjourn and commissioner Travillion, ten minutes? We'll come back at 10:55 and I will pass it over to you, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Judge, thank you. With a quorum that was established during the presentation, we're going to go ahead and adjourn also our portion of the joint meeting of the Travis county court here on Tuesday, October 12th, 2021, also 10:45. Colleagues, ten-minute break and then let's get together at 5 'til. I didn't see any pulled items. We do have one item we're going to act on, make sure there aren't any pulled items. We'll get into executive session because we have some things that are timely to be decided this week that need to move on. We have one presentation that we have to make sure we hear today, because the outside expert [10:45:53 AM] giving it to us needs to be on a plane at 2:00, but we can discuss timing when we get together at five minutes 'til. We'll see you in ten minutes. We're adjourned. >> Judge Brown: Thanks. much.