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(Pexels)
Some voters who applied to vote by mail in Travis County have received ballots with only the July 14 special state senate contest on them, not any of the primary races.
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said on Twitter that the problem stems from the fact that a number of applicants did not select a party when applying for a mail-in ballot, which means that the primary runoff races—the entire ballot except the race to fill former state Sen. Kirk Watson's seat—are not on the forms that were mailed out.
DeBeauvoir told the Austin American-Statesman that voting by mail is not a "voter-friendly system" in Texas.
Our office must receive ballot by mail applications by July 2 for the July 14 election. If you forgot to select a p… https://t.co/3AsYIno0nl— Travis County Clerk (@Travis County Clerk)1593612330.0
Those voters are now being told to cast a ballot curbside or in person.
Travis County received nearly as many vote-by-mail applications for the rescheduled primary runoff as it did for the 2016 presidential election, which experts told Austonia is due to a combination of high turnout and resistance to voting in person from people who are concerned about coronavirus.
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(Project Connect)
Project Connect is starting to take shape, Capitol Metro announced, and officially beginning with the scoping phase that includes an environmental report set to go on from now to 2022.
<p>Although that may seem like a long process, the Project Connect, a complete overhaul of the city's public transit system, is starting a timeline of 13 years before it is complete. Capitol Metro representatives met Monday to discuss the future of the orange line, that is expected to be complete in nine year. </p><p><span></span>The orange line will connect North and South Austin, starting at Tech Ridge, with 22 stops along the way until it hits Slaughter Lane. There will be service every 10-15 minutes, according to officials.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-height="898" data-rm-shortcode-id="ad2c8ff862a0d910ecdb8acfb6335ab7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUzMzkxOC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjQ2Nzg0NX0.Ygxo0qUUQRlIyqDnbW3I65mT2xphZHjDDEgdaNxj-98/img.png?width=980" data-width="1600" id="6d394" type="lazy-image"/>
</p><p>The orange line is expected to be complete in nine years.<br/></p><p>Before the project moves any further, an environmental impact statement must be developed. The EIS is part of the National Environmental Policy Act and is a crucial step to beginning new developments because it scopes the surrounding area and helps engineer better ways for the project to fit into the community.</p><p>As part of the scoping period, AECOM's Orange Line project manager Jerry Smiley said they will be asking for public feedback regularly for the next several years. </p><p>Since construction of the new lines will begin at different times, some lines may be done before then, like the red line, which starts construction of two new stops and a second track this year.</p>
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(Emma Freer)
Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents District 2 in Southeast Austin, and Travis County Judge Andy Brown tour the Austin Region Infusion Center earlier this month.
The COVID-19 therapeutic infusion center in South Austin is expanding.
The pop-up center opened outside of the Montopolis CommUnity Care location on Jan. 6 with nine infusion chairs and monoclonal antibody treatments donated by area hospitals. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that the center will now offer 33 infusion chairs, thanks to additional support provided by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
<p>"These treatments are essential in our fight to keep hospitalizations down and save lives," Abbott said in a statement. </p><p>The <a href="https://austonia.com/austin-covid-antibodies" target="_blank">intravenous treatments</a> are administered to high-risk COVID-19 patients in the early stage of the disease in an effort to help neutralize the virus and prevent hospitalization. Patients must be referred by area physicians or contacted by Austin Public Health and CommUnity Care after receiving a positive test result at one of their sites. </p><p>Austin's three hospital systems—Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health and St. David's HealthCare—are referring eligible patients to the infusion center, according to a joint statement issued on Monday. </p><p>Since opening, the center has treated 279 patients, most of whom are 65 years of age or older, at a rate of around 26 per day. Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said Friday that the goal is to increase the daily capacity to as many as 75 patients.</p><p>The Montopolis center is administering the monoclonal antibody treatment Regeneron, one of two such medications that have received emergency use authorizations from the FDA. The other—from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly—is also administered via IV. The entire treatment process takes about two-and-a-half hours, with an hour-long infusion plus time to check-in and monitoring afterward.</p><p>With wider treatment, the Austin area may start to see a meaningful reduction in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID. "You have to treat about 10 people to prevent one hospitalization," said Dr. Jack Bissett, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Ascension Seton.</p><p>Although the moving average number of daily COVID hospital admissions in the Austin metro has fallen over the last two weeks, it remains squarely in the Stage 5 risk category—the highest according to Austin Public Health's risk-based guidelines. There are currently 26 low- and moderate-acuity COVID patients being treated at the alternate care site downtown, which is intended to relieve pressure on hospital ICUs.</p><p>Preliminary study data reveals that monoclonal antibody treatments are most effective in the few days after COVID symptoms present themselves, so experts recommend that patients seek out testing and medical care early, which could lead to referral. </p><p>"If you belong to a high-risk category, don't waste time," said Dr. Mezgebe Berhe, an infectious disease specialist and the principal investigator for a Regeneron trial conducted by Baylor Scott & White Research Institute.<br/></p>
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