Texas’ most populous county issued a public safety alert on Wednesday warning residents against celebrating the New Year with anyone other than their immediate home.
KHOU-11, a local CBS affiliate, reports the Harris County warning, which contains Houston, told residents to “protect yourself, your family and health care professionals”.
Dr. Ali Mokdad, a researcher who helped create the COVID-19 model used by the White House, told the television station that an increase in the number of cases and mobility has been observed, but the use of a mask has remained stagnant.
“The concern for New Year’s Eve is totally different,” Mokdad told the station. “It’s a different kind of celebration. People celebrate with friends, family and sometimes people they don’t know. It can be a very popular event beyond what you’re seeing in Texas.”
More than 60 percent of ICU beds in Texas are currently occupied by KHOU reports from COVId-19 patients, with cases that are not expected to peak until sometime in January.
According to Mokdad’s model, if trends continue the way they are, Texas could suffer up to 35,000 deaths in early February.
“Many hospitals are experiencing a lack of ICU beds. If you put so much pressure on hospitals, we may have to start referring patients to other hospitals far from where they live, ”said Mokdad.
KHOU notes that the launch of the vaccine has been much slower than expected. Trump officials on Wednesday defended the pace of distribution of the vaccine, claiming that up to 20 million doses will be available to all 64 U.S. territories.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), more than 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered so far.
“The 95 percent use of the mask will perform much better between now and April 1, especially when compared to the rapid release of vaccines, simply because we don’t have enough vaccines,” added Mokdad and said the pandemic is likely to get much worse at from January.