Abilene, Bryan-College Station, Laredo does not have ICU beds available

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Health officials in Laredo – one of three counties in Texas with beds in the intensive care unit – are urging residents to stay home and prevent the coronavirus from spreading as the city’s hospitals overflow with patients.

“Hospitals are overwhelmed and are capable of increasing COVID-19 cases. “They need to divert patients to local independent facilities at this time,” the city of Laredo said in an emergency message to residents on Sunday. Texas Public Radio. “Lives are at stake. We ask you to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. ”

In the areas of Abilene and Bryan-College Station, there were also no ICU beds available from Sunday.

The Texas Department of Health Services said in a tweet Friday that the pandemic had never been worse in Texas, and it had never been so easy to catch COVID-19 in the state. The department is “very concerned” about hospital capacity and stresses that “ICUs in Texas can not take much more.”

Victor Treviño, Laredo health authority, said in a statement On Saturday, more than 36 patients would be rushed from the emergency to the independent facilities in the city. The Laredo Department of Health last week reported nearly 4,900 cases of coronavirus, and the area set a record for daily infections with more than 2,000 cases on Wednesday.

“We plead with the community to stay home and limit activities to essential purposes,” Treviño said.

According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, COVID-19 patients occupy nearly 49% of the hospital capacity in the Laredo region. This is a much larger number than any other trauma service region in the state.

In the areas of Abilene and Bryan-College Station, no ICU hospital beds have been regularly available since mid-November. Health officials from those areas were not immediately available for comment.

“We are unable to keep up with this increase in cases that test positive,” said Dr. Seth Sullivan, Brazos County Alternative Health Authority, said at the end of December, according to KBTX. “The last few weeks are definitely going to get worse, and I’m very worried about the next two to four weeks.”

According to the Laredo Morning Times, the Laredo region has led the drug to the percentage of patients treated for COVID-19 since mid-December.

“The amount of COVID-19 spread exceeds the ability to handle hospitalizations due to people participating (still) in high-risk and high-contact activities,” Treviño told the Morning Times.

Texas has reported more than 1.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the onset of the pandemic. More than 32,000 people in the state have died from the coronavirus since Saturday. Hospitals COVID-19 patients in Texas have been steadily increasing since October as people traveled for the winter holidays, gathered indoors to avoid the cold weather and faced “COVID-19 fatigue” over restrictions and precautions.

During the summer, drugs, beds, and ventilators in Texas hospitals ran out as the effects of coronavirus increased worldwide. Now, cases in Texas have surpassed the numbers hit in the summer, and Laredo is one of the many cities overwhelmed by hospitals and coronavirus hospitalizations.

Austin health officials opened the Austin Convention Center on Tuesday to prevent admissions from ICUs – which have reached a record high in the area. The UT-Austin COVID-19 model consortium recently predicted that ICUs are expected to reach their capacity in Austin soon.

“The state is in a boom. The state is in crisis, ‘said dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin and Travis County, said at a news conference in early January. “It seems very clear to us that we are going to run out of hospital beds, and that we will have to stretch resources to meet the needs of our community.”

Some emergency rooms in North Texas also have patients because there is no space in the ICU, Dr. Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, told The Tribune earlier this month. Dr. Justin Fairless, an emergency doctor in Fort Worth, said earlier this month that there are coronavirus patients in the corridors of hospitals because there is nowhere else to place them. “

Treviño warned that Laredo would “medically overwhelm” unless people act to stop the spread of the virus, including wearing masks and avoiding gatherings.

Disclosure: Texas College of Emergency Physicians is a financial backer of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-party news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of these.