AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: This article's headline previously stated that it had been one year since Austin's first COVID-19 case. The headline has been updated to reflect that it's been one year since the first U.S. case.
It's been more than one year since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S., but as cases drop and more and more people get vaccinated, some are hopeful that the tide is changing.
Mayor Steve Adler joined KVUE Monday morning to talk more about the pandemic and the City of Austin's fight against it.
KVUE: People have complained about the current system to sign up for vaccination slots, but Austin Public Health and the City are in the process of figuring out a better solution. Some council members suggested an email system that will automatically notify them when they get an appointment to avoid making anyone search all day. Is this something that is in the works, or what better solution is the city working on?
Adler: Well, Austin, Public Health is continuing to work with that system. It has to do a lot of things. It has to tie into the state system and it has to make sure that we're getting all the vaccines out. So we're working on it, but we're successfully getting the vaccines out. Every vaccine that comes in, we get into people's arms the same week that we get it, about 40,000 vaccines. We're making it so that the signup period is only on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that people aren't going back to the site more frequently. Most importantly, we're reaching out to those that are most susceptible and vulnerable to make sure that they know when to go on because, right now, those are the people we need to get to because they're most at risk.
RELATED: Austin Public Health limits sign-up days for vaccine appointments to Tuesdays and Thursdays
KVUE: Where are you at in the process of setting up the call center for vaccinations? You were set to meet with a consultant last week. When can we expect that to become available?
Adler: You know, I think that's going to be stood up here pretty quickly to make the calls. It's bilingual and it's making sure that the people, again, most vulnerable get reached and get signed up. I know everybody is frustrated. We have 150,000 people in the city over age 65, are all eligible to have a vaccine taken. But we're only getting 12,000 vaccines a week. So no matter what system we have, most of the people that are eligible are not going to be able to schedule an appointment, and that's frustrating. We need greater supply coming from the federal government and from the State. We have the capacity to give out five, 10 times as much vaccine as we're getting. And that's the real frustration that everybody has.
RELATED:
KVUE: The Superbowl was last night and we know people probably gathered to celebrate. Did code enforcement have to give citations to any bars or restaurants last night for breaking the rules?
Adler: I haven't seen a report, but I know that Code was out in greater force on Saturday night and on Sunday. Ultimately, we can't enforce our way to compliance. It's got to be people watching what they're doing and correcting their own behaviors. It's got to be something that we want in the community. We've done a really good job from New Year's Eve on. Our numbers are going down, we have to maintain that, especially with the indications now that some of the variants may be reaching Austin.
KVUE: Right now, Austin-Travis County is only receiving 12,000 doses of the vaccine each week. If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets emergency use authorization that they put in for, has there been any discussion between the City and the State about receiving larger allocations?
Adler: You know, I was with Dr. [John] Hellerstedt this weekend. If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine becomes available, certainly we want to make it available here and give people a choice. If you take the Johnson & Johnson, it's only one shot as opposed to two shots. It looks as if they're both equally effective, preventing someone from dying or having a serious illness. But the one shot doesn't seem to be as effective in just keeping the virus away. Still pretty effective. So hopefully we'll give people a choice if we get that so that we can roll it out. So someone could say, I want the Johnson & Johnson or do I want to wait and get the Moderna or Pfizer? Hopefully, we'll have a choice.
KVUE: City council passed the HEAL Initiative last week, which includes reinstating the camping ban in four areas of the city. What is your plan for the people who live in those areas if there isn't enough housing to put them all in? Where should they go if the state camp is at full capacity and some housing the city has invested in is being used for COVID-19 purposes?
Adler: We adopted the ordinances we did a year-and-a-half ago. At that time, we said we would have identified places where people can and cannot be. And at that time we identified some places in Austin where you can't be. We addressed the area around the ARCH downtown and made that a no-camp, sit-lie area. And all the council did was go to the manager and say, "You need to continue that work, manager, and you need to make sure that people are not camping, sitting or lying in unsafe areas so close to traffic, in our parks." And the resolution called for the manager to find places where people can go, like the two hotels that we authorized to purchase, also last week. We're taking a look at many homes in sanctioned camp areas, revisiting that topic. We don't want people camping, sitting or lying anywhere in our city, but we can't go back to the old days where we just hid these people. It's inhumane and cruel. We actually have to house them.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: