Houston health experts fear people will become complacent as COVID hospitalizations drop
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- As hospitalizations are down, there is still a concern about the amount of COVID-19 cases in our community.
Dr. David Persse with the City of Houston Health Authority, says we're moving in the right direction when it comes to COVID-19 but cautions we're not out of the woods.
"We're tipping in the right direction. We've still got a long way to go," Dr. Persse said.
Dr. Persse says that while the city is making progress, there's still more work to be done.
"Hospitalizations are starting to go down, even in the ICUs that's starting to improve. The positivity rate seems to be going down now, I worry a little bit about that because the number of people going to get tested is also going down and so as that number gets smaller the accuracy of the positivity rate becomes less reliable," Dr. Persse said.
He says one of the reasons things are improving is masking. He says now we have to stay the course.
"We need to continue to drive these numbers down, so we're moving in the right direction but we're not there yet so I keep telling people this is not the time to take our foot off the brake," said Dr. Persse.
Persse's biggest fear is complacency.
"My fear is that we will become complacent again. We've done that once," Persse said, "My biggest fear is that we keep repeating the complacency and we do that over and over."
He says it's important that Houstonians stay vigilant and wear a mask.
