Abilene, Bryan-College Station, Laredo has no ICU beds available

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Health officials in Laredo – one of three regions in Texas whose intensive care unit beds are full – are begging residents to stay home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the city’s hospitals are full.

“Hospitals are overloaded and unable to cope with the increase in COVID-19 cases. They are having to divert patients to local autonomous facilities right now, ”the city of Laredo told residents on Sunday in an emergency message, according to Texas Public Radio. “Lives are at stake. We are asking you to stay home, unless it is absolutely necessary. “

The Abilene and Bryan-College Station areas also had no ICU beds available until Sunday.

The Texas Department of Health Services said in a tweet Friday the pandemic has never been worse in Texas, and catching COVID-19 in the state has never been easier. The department is “very concerned” about the hospital’s capacity and emphasized that “ICUs across Texas can’t take much longer.”

Laredo’s health authority, Dr. Victor Treviño, said in a statement On Saturday, more than 36 patients would be diverted from the emergency room to independent facilities across the city. Laredo’s health department reported nearly 4,900 cases of coronavirus last week, and the area set a record daily reported infections with more than 2,000 cases on Wednesday.

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

COVID-19 patients occupy nearly 49% of the hospital capacity in the Laredo region, according to data from the Texas Department of Health Services. It is a much larger number than any other trauma service region in the state.

The Abilene and Bryan-College Station areas frequently reported that there were no ICU hospital beds available since mid-November. Health officials in these areas were not immediately available for comment.

“We are not able to keep up with this increase in cases with positive results,” said Brazos County Alternative Health Authority, Seth Sullivan, in late December, according to KBTX. “It certainly got worse in the last few weeks, and I’m very concerned about the next two to four weeks.”

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

“The amount of COVID-19 is exceeding the capacity to handle hospitalizations resulting from people who continue to participate in high-risk and high-contact activities,” Treviño told the Morning Times.

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

In the summer, some Texas hospitals ran out of drugs, beds and ventilators as they faced a statewide increase in coronavirus cases. Now, cases across Texas have surpassed the numbers hit in the summer, and Laredo is one of many cities that face crowded hospitals and register hospitalizations for coronavirus.

Austin health officials opened the Austin Convention Center on Tuesday to prevent ICU admissions – which have reached record levels in the area – from being overloaded. The UT-Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium recently projected that ICUs should reach capacity soon in Austin.

“The state is on the rise. The state is in crisis, ”said Dr. Mark Escott, Austin and Travis County’s interim health official at a news 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 the resources to meet the needs of our community.”

Some emergency rooms in northern Texas are also retaining patients because there is no ICU space, Dr. Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, told The Tribune earlier this month. Dr. Justin Fairless, an emergency physician in Fort Worth, said earlier this month that there are patients with coronaviruses in hospital corridors “because there is nowhere else to put them.”

Treviño warned that Laredo would be “medically dominated” unless people take steps to prevent the virus from spreading, including wearing masks and avoiding meetings.

Disclosure: Texas College of Emergency Physicians has financially supported The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a complete list of them here.