On Tuesday, November 24, the Brownwood City Council discussed the current COVID-19 conditions in Brown County with Lisa Dick, Brownwood/Brown County Health Administrator (shown in photo), and Krista Baty, Chief Administrative Officer of Hendrick Brownwood. On Tuesday, the active COVID-19 cases were the highest Brown County has seen, at 411 cases and 17 local hospitalizations. Mayor Haynes asked that the medical and economic implications of rising COVID-19 cases be shared with the public.
Currently, Brown County is operating under Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-32 that allows most businesses to operate at 75% capacity. According to Governor Abbott’s Executive Order, hospital regions with high COVID-19 hospitalizations, defined as 15% of total staffed hospital beds for a seven-day period, triggers business occupancy to be reduced to 50% and mandates that bars not serving food must close.
Brownwood is in the hospital region with Abilene (Region D). On Tuesday, 17 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Brownwood and 107 in Abilene (total 124), which was a 14.33% COVID-19 hospitalization rate. When 145 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, it will put our region in the 15% hospitalization level.
If this percentage is sustained for seven days, it will activate the Governor’s Order to roll back business occupancy levels for the region, harming our local economy. It is estimated at the current rate of spread in our region, we will reach 145 hospitalized patients within 10 days. We would remain under these restrictions until our seven-day average of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is below 15%. All the hospital regions to the west of Region D (A, B, I, and J) are above the 15% hospitalization rate and are currently under increased restrictions.
The ICU and COVID-19 unit at Hendrick Medical Center are currently full with COVID-19 patients. This recent surge in hospitalized COVID-19 patients is detrimental to other non-COVID-19 patients who require hospitalization.
The County Judge and Mayors do not have authority to close businesses or order a shutdown. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) enforces restrictions on bars, and the State has authority through the Governor’s Orders to enforce restrictions on all other businesses.
The City of Brownwood and Hendrick Medical Center do not want to see additional economic or medical hardship come to our citizens and business community. We urge our residents to make every effort to reduce the impact of COVID-19 by following these best practices:
