Parkland Hospital sees COVID hospitalizations double over weekend

DALLAS – An increase in COVID cases and a change in message from some elected leaders could finally lead to more vaccinations.

The CDC shows that the number of vaccinations increased over the weekend.

Across the country, around 657,000 vaccines were administered on Saturday and 780,000 on Sunday. This represents an increase from a 7-day moving average of approximately 583,000 per day.

This is good news for healthcare workers, including those in northern Texas who are facing a flood of new COVID patients.

Parkland Hospital chief medical officer Dr Joseph Chang said that at present, the largest demographic of hospitalized covid patients are people in their 30s and 40s and unvaccinated. He says he’s extremely worried about the fall, when most of the students will return to school for in-person learning.

“Look, this is crazy. Here we go. It’s groundhog day again,” he said. “It’s really amazing, I’ll tell you. It’s something that we really, really hate to see.”

Over the weekend, Dr Chang says the number of COVID hospitalizations in Parkland doubled.

“A month ago we were at seven patients. And now I’m looking at 70 patients,” he said. “And guys, this is a completely preventable situation.”

Dr Chang says every COVID patient currently in Parkland is not vaccinated. He fears the virus will continue to mutate as children return to school.

“They’re going to mingle with each other. They’re going to pass it around and bring it home to the exact demographic of the 30-40 year olds who are parents, and it’s just going to happen perpetually,” he said. warned.

Some Dallas ISD schools start again next week with in-person learning. And like all other school districts, they don’t have the authority to impose mask requirements. Administrators are running virtual forums for parents to help answer questions and concerns related to COVID.

“We definitely recommend face masks during the school day,” said Liliana Valadez of Dallas ISD. “We follow our safety protocols. We are working with our health department to determine, if there is a case, what to do from there.”

Parkland already has a dedicated COVID service that has never closed.

A spokeswoman said they were monitoring workloads to determine if more services were needed. She added that reopening the Tactical Care Unit would be a last resort as it is extremely disruptive to the ability to meet the surgical needs of the citizens of Dallas County.

Dr Chang says there is a simple solution to turning the tide of the pandemic.

“We are the cause of our own problem,” he said. “If we just immunized enough of our population, we would reduce the number of infections to almost zero.”

According to the DDFW Hospital Council, there are 1,233 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals that make up our region. This is an increase of over 100 patients from just a day ago.

Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator. So, as the number of cases increases, the board expects hospitalizations to increase as well.