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A fourth wave of COVID-19 cases is on the horizon and could potentially overwhelm emergency rooms as most unvaccinated people seek treatment for the most deadly and contagious delta variant, three of the mainstreams said on Tuesday. Houston area medical leaders.
And, they said, it should happen as testing centers remain closed, schools are welcoming students again, and many people throw off masks and other precautions ahead of a potentially severe flu season.
“As this fourth wave starts off strong, our radar is down,” William McKeon, CEO of Texas Medical Center, said in a conference call with reporters. “We only have a fraction of the tests…. We are going to be much more blind to the spread of the delta variant in our community.
The warning came a day after the Houston Methodist Hospital reported a 70% increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 over the past week, almost all of the delta variant cases among those who were not vaccinated.
The Methodist hospital also reported its first recorded case of the lambda variant, which originated in Peru last year and devastated many countries in Latin America.
Meanwhile, the most contagious and deadly delta variant is expected to continue to wreak havoc in southeast Texas, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and director. from the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital. .
“The delta will accelerate, and it will accelerate the most in places with low immunization rates,” including many rural areas in Texas, Hotez said on Tuesday’s call.
Hospitalizations across the state more than doubled this month, from 1,591 on July 1 to 3,319 on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state’s hospital admissions peaked in January at 14,000.
This has the potential to overwhelm hospitals as more people continue to have elective surgeries that they delayed during the height of the pandemic, or seek emergency care now that they feel more secure. comfortable in hospitals, said Baylor College of Medicine president Paul Klotman.
“There are a lot of pent-up medical needs,” he said.
This story will be updated.
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