Texas hospital system is preparing tents to deal with rapid increase in Covid-19 patients

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The Harris Health System in Houston reports that one in four patients at its two hospitals has tested positive for Covid-19.

The intensive care unit at Ben Taub Hospital is at 95% of its capacity with 27% use by Covid-19 patients and the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, where the tents are set up, is at 100 % ICU utilization with 63% Covid cases, Harris Health spokesman Bryan McLeod told CNN in an email.

“They are still in the process of finishing the setup and installing the computer equipment, etc. There is no predetermined time to start using them, but they want the tented environment to be ready to go in case they are needed, ”McLeod said.

President and CEO Esmaeil Porsa told CNN’s Victor Blackwell that there were 122 Covid patients in the two hospitals in the system and the number had increased rapidly.

“What’s intriguing about this increase is not so much the magnitude of the numbers, but the speed at which the numbers are increasing,” Porsa said.

“It took us five weeks to go from one (patient) to 120. When I look at the last wave, it took us three months – the rapid increase in the number of Covid patients is very concerning.”

Another delayed problem is the lack of staff. Porsa said he would welcome federal help to relieve some of the pressure. Hospitals are 254 nurses leaving short-term hospitals with no choice but to hire high-cost agency nurses, he said.

Porsa urged everyone to get vaccinated, saying none of the 128 patients who died from the virus in hospitals across the health system this year were fully vaccinated.

“The situation is bad and is only getting worse. We are not heading for a crisis, we are in the middle of a crisis,” Porsa said.

Baby flown for lack of beds in Houston

An 11-month-old girl had to be airlifted to a hospital 150 miles away on Friday due to a bed shortage in Harris County.

Ava Amira Rivera has tested positive for Covid-19, according to Amanda Callaway, spokesperson for Harris Health System. Callaway said Ava was having seizures and needed to be incubated, but Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, where she was first taken, does not offer pediatric services.

None of the region’s major pediatric hospitals had beds available, Callaway said.

Mom tries to explain Texas mask rules to her 5-year-old

She is doing well and is on the road to recovery, said Dr Dominic Lucia of Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Medical Center in Temple, Texas.

The Harris County / City of Houston Public Health Dashboard reported 220.79 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days on Friday.

In Texas, the seven-day moving average was 11,042 new daily cases on August 2, according to CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will not impose a statewide mask warrant and issued an executive order banning local governments from requiring masks or requiring vaccinations.

The governor said the reason he didn’t issue another mask warrant is because people are “immune to Covid through vaccination or through their own exposure and recovery.”

“It would be inappropriate to require people who are already immune to wear a mask,” Abbott recently told CNN affiliate KPRC. “But also, what we do know is that everyone who watches the show and in the state of Texas knows exactly what the standards are and if they want to adopt them in order to protect themselves.”
Abbott encouraged Texans to get vaccinated but note that vaccines in Texas are “always voluntary, never forced”.

CNN’s Keith Allen, Carma Hassan, Kay Jones and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.



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