ABILENE, Texas — According to Hendrick Health Care, Abilene-Taylor County and Brownwood have reached level 6 of the community safety level dial which is emergency status.
Level 6 means Abilene-Taylor county and Brownwood have uncontrolled community transmission of COVID-19 and have reached seven consecutive days of being above the 15% threshold.
According to Hendrick, there are 61 Hendrick Health care workers who are in quarantine, with 0 ICU beds available, and 19.16% of COVID-19 hospitalization in Trauma Service Area-D.
The City of Abilene released the following statement:
"We are concerned about the rapidly rising cases and the associated hospitalizations. The goal from the beginning of COVID was to flatten the curve to ensure we didn't overwhelm our healthcare system. We are at the point where our healthcare system in Taylor County is stretched too thin for comfort and we don't want to get to the point of medical providers having to ration care. This effort will take every resident doing their part to analyze their daily activities and enact additional measures to reduce exposures. There is a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a vaccine and we have good scientific evidence that the vaccines coming are highly effective and very safe. We expect residents to research the vaccine using reputable scientific resources such as the National Institute of Health, Texas Department of State Health Services, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and similar entities. If we want to return to normal life sooner rather than later, we expect residents to remain diligent, postpone high-risk extracurricular activities, limit public outings and continue to wear masks, wash hands frequently, disinfect surfaces, and stay home as much as possible and definitely when sick. And when the vaccine becomes available, please take it."