Is Austin-Travis County moving to Stage 5? We could find out today

Austin Public Health and other local leaders are hosting a media Q&A Thursday Jan. 6 at 10:30 a.m. to talk about the spread of the omicron variant and our current COVID-19 risk-based guidelines.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Public Health and other local leaders are hosting a media Q&A Thursday Jan. 6 at 10:30 a.m. to talk about the spread of the omicron variant and our current COVID-19 risk-based guidelines.

While previous media Q&As have been limited to health leaders, a release notes that both Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown will also be in attendance. Laura Huffman, the president and CEO of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is also expected to speak.

All of the metrics that largely guide the local risk-based guidelines are now in the threshold for Stage 5 guidelines. The last metric to reach that threshold was the 7-day moving average of hospitalizations, which hit the threshold earlier this week.

As of Wednesday, the number of people in area hospital with COVID-19 is 385 people, though health leaders announced earlier this week that a larger number of people are showing up to the hospital for non-COVID-related illnesses or injuries and testing positive for the virus, which counts towards the data.

There are 69 people in the ICU with COVID-19, that number is generally a more accurate depiction of how serious this spike will be for our hospitals.

As of this week, Austin Public Health announced that roughly one in three tests being done in Travis County were coming back positive for COVID-19.

The briefing Thursday will be streamed live in this story and on KXAN's Facebook page. This is a developing story.