Here is a recap of what was featured in the Wednesday, Jan. 5, e-edition of the Taylor Press. The e-edition is mailed to subscribers and available at www.taylorpress.net.
MARCHING ON
With caution, Taylor’s Martin Luther King Jr. march will return to an inperson event this month.
On Monday, Jan. 17, the 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration will take place from south to downtown Taylor. A march will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude with an abbreviated program afterward close to 10 a.m.
“We will have some people say a few words or so at the program this year,” said Shorty Mitchell, Greater Taylor Area Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Celebration Committee chairman, “but for the most part, it will be done a little different then what we have done in past years because of COVID-19 cases creeping back up.”
The march will begin at the Dickey-Givens Community Center at Fannie Robinson Park, 903 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in south Taylor. Participants will then walk west on MLK Boulevard and then turn north onto Main Street and continue across the overpass. The march will then turn east onto Fourth Street for one block before ending at Heritage Square in downtown Taylor.
For more on the event, log into Facebook at http:// www.facebook.com and search pages for “Taylor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Celebration.”
HUTTO ISD PREPS FOR NEW VARIANT
HUTTO – In preparation for students to return to campus, Hutto ISD has monitored the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the latest guidelines from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Hutto ISD will continue to utilize the current safety plan, which requires individuals who have received a positive COVID-19 test result to stay home until 10 days have passed since a positive test.
Due to the high infection rate in the county, the district will restrict visitors to campuses until after Tuesday, Jan. 18. Hutto ISD will no longer close a classroom or office/work location for COVID-19 positive cases unless adequate staff is not available to operate safely.
All student positive COVID-19 test results should be reported directly to the campus nurse. All staff positive COVID-19 test results should be reported directly to covidHR @huttoisd.net.
Testing is available through the WCCHD. Hutto ISD will continue to provide TEA-required testing for staff members who have been directly exposed.
THOUSANDS IN NEW VIRUS CASES
Confirmed cases, which include past and current cases reported to the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD), went up by 6,975 in Williamson County in two weeks, Dec. 21-Jan. 3. With an average of more than 3,000 cases each week, the jump followed the week of Dec. 14-20’s 793 new cases and several previous weeks tallying in the 400-500 range.
As of Monday, Jan. 3, WCCHD said there had been a total of 75,907 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Williamson County during the pandemic.
Quality assurance (QA) by the health district indicates past cases that need to be added or subtracted to the complete case total. For Dec. 21-Jan. 3, 11 cases were added to the cumulative total through QA.
In those two weeks, WCCHD’s toll for deaths linked to the disease went up by eight. The number stands at 755 as of Jan. 4.
Over two weeks, vaccinations increased by almost 1% with 68.9% of Williamson County residents eligible for a vaccine being fully vaccinated as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Tracker. Approximately 78.8% of eligible residents have received the first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, each of which require two shots for full vaccination. When accounting for county residents not eligible for a vaccine, such as children ages 5 and younger, 64.5% of Williamson County is vaccinated. For more local stats
For more local stats on COVID-19, visit http:// www.wcchd.org/COVID-19/dashboard.php.
