Hospitals in COVID-19 in Texas shatter July record for infections at Christmas gatherings

Hospitals in COVID-19 in Texas shatter July record for infections at Christmas gatherings

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AUSTIN – Texas has set a new record of how many residents are in the hospital due to coronavirus from Monday.

The previous high of 10,893 was introduced on July 22nd. Twelve of the 22 trauma regions in Texas now have high hospitalization rates, causing an automatic callback from restaurants and businesses to half capacity, from 75%.

“It’s almost universal throughout the state,” former state health commissioner David Lakey said of the current wave.

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have been steadily increasing since about a week after Thanksgiving, he noted.

“Obviously, when we get a new record, it’s a concern, and you have to take it very carefully and considerately,” said Lakey, now vice chancellor of health and medical chief at the University of Texas.

As newly infected patients take about ten days to develop symptoms and show up in hospitals, the effects of family gatherings at Christmas have probably not yet shown up in the numbers, he said.

Lakey insisted on increasing vigilance and social removal as another holiday weekend approached – New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

“Eliminating these extracurricular activities right now is very important,” Lakey said.

He said he heard fewer anxious feelings from medical staff up front than he did during the increase in hospitalizations in July.

“When I spoke to our healthcare providers, they were busy, but they did not appear to be under the same stress as in July,” Lakey said. The July spikes were more pronounced, but in fewer regions felt the current increase, he noted.

Also, “we now have more health care providers from other states and staffing agencies offering their support,” Lakey explained.

However, North Texas is now facing a “public health crisis,” warned Steve Love, president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Board.

“It’s very serious!” he said in an email. ‘We’re going to see a boom on an existing boom in January. A lot of people go to malls, go to restaurants and are pretty mobile and it looks like COVID-19 is disappearing because we have vaccines. ‘

While hospitals and their staff are grateful for vaccinations, Love said it will take six to eight months before they are widely distributed so that people can safely relax current precautions.

Director of Occupational Health Stephanie Collins prepares a syringe with a dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination during a media event at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on Tuesday, December 15, 2020. The first Parkland frontline staff and senior leaders have vaccinations in Parkland received after a load of Pfizer vaccines received early Tuesday morning. According to TCU medical leaders, the COVID-19 unit for tactical care has seen an increase in sharpness of patients with COVID-19, and has a greater number of patients integrated into the COVID-ICU.

Asked if Gov. Greg Abbott should impose more restrictions before Friday night’s New Year’s party begins, Love did not immediately respond.

“With the religious holiday period over, we will not see hospitalizations for eight to twelve days,” he said. ‘And add New Year’s celebrations to it, and January will be a deadly month in Texas. People should heed the warning and wear masks, social distance and stay out of the crowd immediately! … If you want to give the gift of life-WEAR A MASK! “

Nearly 3,600 COVID-19 patients are in the hospital in the area of ​​the trade group – with nearly 350 compared to Sunday, Love said.

ICU beds for adults who have enough hospital staff are in short supply, according to 56 – for 19 provinces. These include 18 in Dallas County, 14 in Collin, seven in Denton, six in Tarrant, three in Wise, two in Kaufman and six in the remaining counties, he said.

Abbott spokesmen, promising that there would be no more closure, did not respond to a request for comment.

As of Monday, 15 of 22 trauma service areas reported that 15% or more of their hospital beds had been taken up by COVID patients – the sign that Abbott’s trigger for closing bars, stopping elective surgery and reversing earlier relaxation of capacity constraints for retail stores, restaurants and other businesses.

The Dallas area’s 23.4% were the fourth highest in Texas, behind those of Laredo (37.6%), Lubbock (24%) and Waco (23.8%).

Between Sunday and Monday, the percentage of hospital patients with COVID-19 increased in 14 of the 15 most stressed trauma regions, according to data compiled by the Department of Health Services. The only region where there was a decline was Lufkin.

On Monday, Houston’s trauma region rose above 15% for the first time in more than a week – to 15.2%.

Under Abbott’s executive order in October, a trauma service area must remain at or above 15% for seven consecutive days for the start-up period.

Although new cases confirmed by laboratory tests in Texas dropped to 6,105 on Sunday, they more than doubled to 12,841 on Monday.

This is not a record. The daily record for newly confirmed cases was set last Wednesday, when the department reported 19185. The seven-day average of new business declined over the weekend. This and Monday’s setback may have reflected problems in the test results taking place around holidays.

Lakey, the state’s former health commissioner, said predictive models that were “helpful” in predicting when peaks in new infections would occur, predicted that the COVID-19 cases in Texas would peak during the first week of January. .

Speaking about the decline in Sunday in the reported new business, he said: ‘I’m always a little wary of this data after a big holiday weekend. People want to be at home and they do not want to go testing. It’s a little harder to get tested. I will be careful to interpret these numbers during the holidays. ”

Doctors look at a CT image of the lung in a hospital in Xiaogan, China.

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