Three areas of Texas hit by coronavirus no longer have intensive care beds

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Health officials in Laredo – one of three areas in Texas with intensive care unit beds full – are imploring residents to stay home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus as city hospitals overflow of patients.

“Hospitals are overwhelmed and at full capacity with the surge in COVID-19 cases. They must divert patients to local self-contained facilities right now, ”the city of Laredo told residents on Sunday in an emergency message. Texas Public Radio. “Lives are at stake. We ask you to stay home unless absolutely necessary.

The Abilene and Bryan-College Station areas also did not have beds available at the ICUs as of Sunday.

Texas DSHS said in a tweet Texas’ pandemic has never been worse on Friday, and it has never been easier to catch COVID-19 in the state. The department is “very concerned” about the capacity of the hospitals and stressed that “the intensive care units in Texas cannot take much more.

Dr Victor Treviño, Laredo Health Authority, said in a report On Saturday, more than 36 patients would be diverted from the emergency room to stand-alone facilities across the city. The Laredo health department reported nearly 4,900 cases of the coronavirus last week, and the region set a daily reported infection record with more than 2,000 cases on Wednesday.

“We implore the community to stay home and limit their activities to essential purposes,” Treviño said.

Patients with COVID-19 represent nearly 49% of hospital capacity in the Laredo area, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. That’s a much larger number than any other trauma service area in the state.

The Abilene and Bryan-College Station areas frequently reported not having critical care hospital beds available as of mid-November. Health officials in those areas were not immediately available for comment.

“We are unable to track this increase in cases that test positive,” Brazos County Alternative Health Authority Dr Seth Sullivan said in late December, according to KBTX. “The situation has certainly worsened over the past few weeks, and I am very concerned about the next two to four weeks.

According to the Laredo Morning Times, the Laredo region has led the state in the rate of hospitalized patients treated for COVID-19 since mid-December.

“The amount of prevalent COVID-19 exceeds the ability to manage hospitalizations resulting from people who (continue) to participate in high-risk, high-contact activities,” Treviño told The Morning Times.

Texas has reported more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. More than 32,000 people in the state died from the coronavirus on Saturday. COVID-19 hospital patients in Texas have increased steadily since October as people traveled for winter vacation, gathered indoors to avoid the cold, and faced “COVID-19 fatigue” in cause of restrictions and precautions.

In the summer, some hospitals in Texas ran out of medications, beds and ventilators amid an increase in coronavirus cases statewide. Now, cases across Texas have surpassed the numbers reached this summer, and Laredo is one of many cities facing overwhelmed hospitals and hospitalizations from coronaviruses.

Austin health officials opened the Austin Convention Center on Tuesday to keep intensive care admissions – which have reached record levels in the region – from being exceeded. The UT-Austin COVID-19 modeling consortium recently projected that intensive care units should soon reach capacity in Austin.

“The state is booming. The state is in crisis, ”said Dr Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin and Travis County, at a press conference in early January. “It seems very clear to us that we are going to run out of hospital beds and that we are going to have to stretch resources to meet the needs of our community.

Some North Texas emergency rooms are also seeing patients because there is no space in the intensive care unit, Dr. Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, told the Tribune earlier this month. . Dr Justin Fairless, an emergency room doctor in Fort Worth, said earlier this month that there were coronavirus patients in hospital hallways “because there was nowhere else for them. to put”.

Treviño warned Laredo would become “medically invaded” unless people take action to stop the spread of the virus, including wearing masks and avoiding gatherings.

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