Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Raises COVID Threat Level to ‘Serious’

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday raised the County’s COVID threat level from “significant” orange to “severe” red.

“Severe” is the highest level and calls on unvaccinated people to stay home unless they have to leave for some essential reason, such as going to the grocery store.

According to the threat level system, “severe” is adopted when there is a severe and uncontrolled level of COVID-19, epidemics are present and worsening, and the capacity for testing and contact tracing is enhanced. tough or outdated.

Some hospital emergency rooms are indeed operating at full capacity amid the sudden and rampant spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.

Houston Methodist said its emergency volume is a combination of critically ill patients flooding their emergency rooms amid a wave of COVID-19 cases.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of COVIDs, probably more than this entire pandemic,” said Danielle Butler-Winey, emergency nurse. “These are unvaccinated people who arrive with COVID. “

Here are the four levels of the COVID-19 threat system for Harris County:

• Level 1 – Severe (red) Stay home

• Level 2 – Significant (orange) Minimize all contacts

• Level 3 – Moderate (yellow) Stay alert

• Level 4 – Minimal (green) Resume normal contacts

Hidalgo was joined by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and local health experts including Dr David Persse, Chief Medical Officer of the City of Houston.

Persse fired no punches on Wednesday at another press conference on the severity of the disease and the need for the vaccine.

“We are seeing a huge increase in viral activity in the community to the point where if you are currently not vaccinated you must consider yourself to be a potential danger to yourself and others, and especially your own family. because we found out that those who are infected are most often infected by another family member, ”said Persse.

Time is running out for another reason, experts say.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, warned that if more Americans did not get vaccinated, there was a “good chance” that another variant of the coronavirus would emerge, which could be more aggressive and more ubiquitous than the delta variant.

“If another comes along who has an equally high transmission capacity but is also a lot more serious, then we could really be in trouble,” Fauci said.

Texas health officials said on Wednesday that rising rates of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Texas showed larger jumps than previous increases.

In a video conference, Chris Van Deusen, spokesperson for Texas State Department health services, said the seven-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases was up 92% from last week, while hospitalizations increased 49% and deaths increased 15%.

The increase has been attributed to the highly contagious delta variant, which can even be spread by people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, said Dr Jennifer Shuford, state epidemiologist.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 80% of all new COVID-19 cases involve the delta variant. “And our preliminary data suggests that over 75% of COVID-19 cases in Texas are now due to the delta variant,” Shuford said.

She added that the increase in new cases “is similar to what we’ve seen in previous waves and could even be stronger. And that really shows how contagious the delta variant is. It’s spreading much faster among unvaccinated people than the viruses we saw last year. “

Faced with such grim statistics, Van Deusen said that the seven-day moving average of immunization has also increased by around 75% over the past month, from around 44,000 per day on July 4 to around 75,000 per day. Tuesday day.

“It really seems like people are getting the message that this is a serious situation. If they have delayed the vaccination, now is the time to stop. Don’t delay,” he said.

However, CDC data shows that only 44% of the state’s population was fully vaccinated, meaning both the doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“It’s simple. Over 2.5 billion people on the planet have been vaccinated. If there was a problem with the vaccine, we would know by now. So, for those who say, ‘Wow, I am not so sure. I “I’m a little scared. I don’t know what you’re scared of,” Persse said Wednesday. “We detect problems, rare problems to the point, if a problem occurs, once in a million we know it. This is the level of control this vaccine has been subjected to. Far more control than any other. vaccine in history. It’s a safe vaccine, it’s an effective vaccine. And we need people to get vaccinated because our momentum is going in the wrong direction. “

“Breakthrough cases” among those who have been fully vaccinated are inevitable, especially among those without a strong immune response, Shuford said. “We know that no vaccine is perfect. They never will be.”

But vaccinated people who become ill with COVID-19 are likely to have a shorter, milder illness. “And fully vaccinated people are very well protected against serious illness and death from COVID-19, even from the delta variant,” Shuford said.

She also stressed the importance of following the CDC’s recently updated guidelines on masking and social distancing in indoor public places, especially children aged 2 to 12 who are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine. .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.