The third wave of COVID-19 in Texas continues to test the state’s health system, as 10,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized for the first time since February, state authorities reported Tuesday.
As of Monday, there were 10,041 people hospitalized with COVID-19, the most recent statewide number provided by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, and the highest number since 10,259 hospitalizations for the virus were reported on February 4.
Coronavirus cases have multiplied by the delta variant, and patients have occupied all available beds in the intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals in the Big Thicket, Laredo and Coastal Bend regions. All but one or two intensive care beds are occupied in hospitals in Austin and Victoria, and in the Rolling Plains region of West Texas. Severe COVID-19 cases filled all but three ICU beds in the Wichita Falls-Vernon and Waco areas.
About 35% of the ICU capacity of the Greater Houston Memorial Hermann Health System was occupied by severely COVID patients, while COVID patients occupied 25% of all beds in its system, said the CEO of Memorial Hermann, David Callender.
Although the hospital system registered increases in the admissions of patients with COVID-19 last summer and in mid-January, “what is a bit scary is that the acceleration rate of new cases, the acceleration rate of hospitalizations , It is the highest that has been seen … We do not know exactly how this current wave will peak, or when it will, or how long it will last, ”Callender said.
Meanwhile, local governments and courts continue to undermine Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask-wearing and social distancing orders.
A San Antonio district judge granted a temporary injunction to allow San Antonio and Bexar County to require public school students to wear face masks and self-quarantine if they are not vaccinated and have been exposed to COVID-19.
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Wallace reported from Dallas.
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