HOUSTON – The Executive Vice President at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. James McDeavitt, said Harris County is currently at a “medium risk” with COVID, and he expects over the next few weeks that it will be considered low risk, despite people gathering at large events like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
“We are still in the upper-medium range for the daily admissions to hospitals, so we’re still seeing a steady stream of patients being admitted to our hospitals. The numbers are coming down very rapidly, and my guess is, in the next couple weeks or so, we will probably get into low risk for that metric as well and be completely green for Harris County,” Dr. McDeavitt said.
The metrics are from the CDC, which showed that the calculations that were updated on Friday determined that the majority of the country has a low transmission and therefore it’s safe to remove masks.
McDeavitt said the rodeo is also safe with only one caveat.
“If you are healthy, if you don’t have risk factors, if you’re not undergoing cancer chemotherapy, if you’re not immune suppressed, more importantly, if you’re not living with or exposed to someone that is at risk,” McDeavitt said.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Education predicts COVID deaths and ICU hospitalizations will drastically drop in a few months.