It was a busy evening at Minute Maid Park for Tuesday night's Astros game. First Lady Jill Biden arrived at the ballpark with extra security. She and the Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff were there to ask more Texans to get vaccinated.
“The numbers are low here,” Biden said. “So, I think 40 percent of all Texans are vaccinated."
We are going to the places where the numbers need to get better,” Emhoff explained. “That’s why we are saying, go ahead and get the vaccination. You’re talking about the Delta variant. It’s the best way to protect yourself.”
However, Emhoff’s comments might sound confusing for many Houstonians. Just one month ago, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo reduced the COVID threat level to “Yellow” (or Level 3). According to the county’s description, “Yellow” indicates a reduction in the spread of the COVID-19 virus locally, and the local healthcare system is keeping up with the spread of the virus.
At that time, she sounded optimistic about our numbers going down.
“Our hospitalizations, our cases, our percentage COVID positive in the ICU population, all of those continue to trend in the right direction,” Hidalgo said in May.
Hidalgo has not mentioned any drastic change. Our local numbers still appear to be much lower than they were during the peak of the pandemic. She visited with Dr. Biden, Emhoff, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Tuesday night.