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The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a Southwest Airlines plane landing in Austin from Dallas struck and killed a person who was on the runway. A pilot can be heard on air traffic control audio saying he thought he saw someone right after the plane touched down and tried to maneuver around the person. A body was later found on the runway, but no details have been given. The person was not wearing an airport employee uniform and no identification was found. All passengers did deboard the plane safely.
Barbershops and salons will be reopening today for the first time in many weeks. There will be new restrictions in place, including masks whenever possible. Tela Mange with the Texas Department of Licensing says barbers and stylists will be held to a high standard.
“Cosmetologists and barbers maintain high standards of sanitation and hygiene and they’re just going to have to step that up,” says Mange.
Workstations will have to be six feet apart and sanitized after each customer. Any customer or staff member who appears sick should be turned away immediately.
There has been a lot of preparation that salon owners have been having to do as they get back to work today. The owner of the Headspace Salon and Coop, Laura North, tells FOX 7 finding necessary supplies is no easy task right now.
“Hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, masks; all those things that might have been more easily accessible before all this now have week-long wait lists,” North says.
In some cases the supplies are available but they’re far more expensive than they normally would be. Once salons are restocked customers will be coming in nonstop.
Governor Greg Abbott met with the president at the White House and said Texas is gaining more ground on controlling COVID-19. Abbot believes there are three main culprits that are causing outbreaks; meatpacking plants, jails and senior centers.
“We have task forces that focus on those three areas. If it weren’t for those three categories, the people in Texas testing positive would be very minimal,” Abbot says.
Austin nursing homes are getting some attention from the City Council, which has voted to provide them more funding. An exact dollar amount hasn’t been decided yet. Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott says the nursing home task force is continuing to work on preventing transmission.
“We have deployed strike times to most of these facilities already. Some of those facilities received large strike teams, and that was done in cooperation with state,” says Escott.
The city is also partnering with Dell Medical School to drum up best practices for those facilities. More than 330 nursing home residents have reportedly tested positive in Austin.
Travis County now has crossed the 2,000 mark for the number of coronavirus cases. Austin Public Health says there have now been 2,002 confirmed cases and 59 deaths. 91 people are currently in the hospital and 659 have recovered from their illness.
The Austin City Council has approved another way to help people who are out of work because of COVID-19. Councils are taking a page out of the 1930s and approved the creation of the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps. Council member Allison Alter says it’s goal is to take out-of-work residents, train them, get them working on things like conservation projects and pay them.
“I think when we look to employment in an era with 25% unemployment, these kinds of jobs with training and skills are going to be very attractive,” Alter says.
The city manager is now charged with finding a way to make it happen with federal dollars or see if it could be done through existing nonprofits.
Six people remained hospitalized for coronavirus in Hays County where there have been 199 total cases. 122 of those have recovered.
In Bastrop County, 105 cases have been confirmed and 33 have recovered. Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape is among those who had actually contracted coronavirus. Results from an antibody test found that Pape might have gotten it as far back as February. This would indicate the virus reached the area a lot earlier than believed. Other than a cough he had no other symptoms, so he didn’t realize that he actually had the virus until that antibody test was performed late last month.
This news and more at News Radio KLBJ
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-5-8-20
