/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/JSUVXYHROBD73KJJMQDED3FB2I.JPG "Texas COVID-19 hospitalizations break the July record as infections caused by Christmas parties approach")
AUSTIN – Texas has set a new record for how many of its residents are hospitalized because of the coronavirus, with 11,351 on Monday.
The previous high of 10,893 was set on 22 July. Twelve of Texas’s 22 trauma regions now have high hospitalization rates, triggering automatic dialing of restaurants and businesses to half capacity, at 75%.
“It is almost universal across the state,” said former state health commissioner David Lakey of the current wave.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been growing steadily since about a week after Thanksgiving, he noted.
“Obviously, when we hit a new record, it is alarming and you have to take it very carefully and thoughtfully,” said Lakey, now vice president for health and medical director of the University of Texas System.
Because it takes about 10 days for infected patients to develop symptoms and show up in hospitals, the effects of family reunions at Christmas probably haven’t yet appeared in the numbers, he said.
Lakey called for greater vigilance and social detachment as another holiday weekend approaches – New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
“Eliminating these extracurricular activities is now very important,” said Lakey.
He said he was hearing fewer cries of distress from the frontline medical staff than during the surge in hospitalizations in July.
“When I talked to our healthcare professionals, they are busy, but they don’t seem to be under the same stress they were in July,” said Lakey. July peaks were more pronounced, but were felt in fewer regions than the current increase, he noted.
In addition, “we now have more health care providers from other states and recruitment agencies that give them some support,” explained Lakey.
Northern Texas, however, now has “a public health crisis,” warned Steve Love, president and chief executive of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Board.
“This is very serious!” he said in an email. “We will see an increase in January over an existing increase. Many people go to shopping malls, go to restaurants and have a lot of mobility and seem to think that COVID-19 is leaving because we have vaccines ”.
While hospitals and their staff are grateful for the vaccines, Love said it will take six to eight months for them to be distributed widely enough for people to begin safely relaxing current precautions.
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Asked whether Governor Greg Abbott should impose further restrictions before the start of Friday night’s New Year’s party, Love did not respond directly.
“With the religious holiday season ending, we will not see hospitalizations for eight to 12 days,” he said. “And add New Year’s celebrations to that and January will be a deadly month in Texas. People need to pay attention to the warning and wear masks, social distance and stay out of the crowds right away! … If you want to give the gift of life – USE A MASK! “
Nearly 3,600 patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized in the commercial group’s territory – almost 350 more than Sunday’s mark, Love said.
ICU beds for adults with sufficient hospital staff are scarce, he said – up to 56 in 19 counties. That includes 18 in Dallas County, 14 in Collin, seven in Denton, six in Tarrant, three in Wise, two in Kaufman and six in the remaining counties, he said.
Spokesmen for Abbott, who promised that there would be no more closings, did not respond to a request for comment.
On Monday, 15 of the 22 trauma service areas reported that 15% or more of their hospital beds were occupied by COVID patients – the brand that is Abbott’s trigger for closing bars, suspending elective surgeries and reversing their previous relaxation. capacity limits in retail stores, restaurants and other businesses.
23.4% of the Dallas area was the fourth largest in Texas, behind Laredo (37.6%), Lubbock (24%) and Waco (23.8%).
Between Sunday and Monday, the percentages of hospital patients with COVID-19 increased in 14 of the 15 most stressed trauma regions, according to data compiled by the State Department of Health Services. The only region where there was a fall was Lufkin.
On Monday, the Houston trauma region rose above 15% for the first time in more than a week – to 15.2%.
According to Abbott’s executive order in October, a trauma service area must remain 15% or more for seven consecutive days for restrictions to arise.
Although new cases confirmed by laboratory tests in Texas fell on Sunday to 6,105, they more than doubled on Monday to 12,841.
This is not a record. The daily record for new confirmed cases was set last Wednesday, when the department notified 19,185. The seven-day average of new cases declined over the weekend. That and Monday’s recovery may have reflected flaws in the test results that occur around the holidays.
Lakey, the former state health commissioner, said that predictive models that have “been useful” in predicting when new infections will spike are predicting that COVID-19 cases in Texas will peak during the first week of January.
Speaking about the decline in new cases registered on Sunday, he said: “I always get a little suspicious about this data after a big holiday. People want to be at home and don’t want to be tested. It is a little more difficult to take the test. I would be cautious not to over-interpret these figures during the holiday. “
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