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North Texas Hospitals Report Increase in COVID-19 Patients
Hospitals in North Texas are sounding the alarm as they report an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, most of them unvaccinated. There is now pressure to get more people vaccinated.
DALLAS – Here in North Texas, in the past two days, nearly 100 people with COVID-19 have been admitted to DFW hospitals.
Although the Metroplex does not experience winter peaks, mainly thanks to widespread access to the vaccine, the patients at the hospital continue to have something in common, and that is that they are not vaccinated.
“We are rapidly approaching one in five intensive care patients with COVID-19,” said Dr Stephen Love, of the DFW Hospital Council.
Hospitals in North Texas continue to see a steady increase in COVID-19 admissions.
As of Friday, 700 patients were in hospitals in DFW with COVID-19. Just 48 hours later, that number now stands at 784, more than double the number of patients as of June 30.
RELATED: North Texas Among Areas With Rise In COVID-19 Cases As It Becomes ‘Unvaccinated Pandemic’
FILE – Image of empty hospital bed. (FOX TV channels)
“The other worrying factor is that the majority of these patients have not been vaccinated,” Dr Love said.
Texas Health and Human Services recorded that Texas exceeded the positivity rate by 10%, a percentage the state has not seen since February.
In Tarrant County, the community spread level has been changed to ‘high’.
The county health department reported nearly 1,500 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, as the Delta variant continues to target the unvaccinated.
“What we are seeing is that this virus is an opportunist. It goes to places where people are not fully vaccinated,” said CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky.
Dallas County is still working to vaccinate nearly half of the county.
RELATED: Closure of the drive-thru vaccination center at Fair Park
The Fair Park Mass Vaccination Center is now closed after administering half a million vaccines in the past six months.
Now the county is building on smaller-scale vaccine awareness efforts, hoping to win over those who are still hesitant.
“They are playing Russian roulette, because the virus is going to pursue them,” Love said.
Recent modeling from UT’s Southwest Medical Center shows that if current trends continue, there could be an increase in the fall worse than summer 2020.
As cases continue to rise, the average age of infections is decreasing across Texas.
The age group with the most infections is the 30-39 year olds.
And only 25% of North Texas 12 to 15 year olds are fully immunized, as the window continues to close with the school around the corner.
“They want it in the rearview mirror, but it’s not in the rearview mirror,” Love said. “If you pair the variant with the unvaccinated people, frankly, as much as we hate to say it, we’re not surprised to see that spike in numbers.”
Dr Love said bed capacity is not an issue right now here in North Texas.
But the current numbers for COVID-19 hospitals in North Texas are numbers that have not been seen since March.
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