Abilene, Bryan-College Station, Laredo do not have ICU beds available

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Health officials in Laredo – one of three regions in Texas where beds in the intensive care unit are full – are begging residents to stay at home and prevent the coronavirus from spreading now that the city’s hospitals are overcrowded with patients.

“Hospitals are overwhelmed and have capacity with the increase in COVID-19 cases. They currently need to reroute patients to local stand-alone facilities, ” the city of Laredo told residents in an emergency message on Sunday. Texas Public Radio. “Lives are at stake. We ask you to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. “

In the station areas of Abilene and Bryan-College, no ICU beds were available from Sunday.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said in a tweet Friday that the pandemic has never been worse in Texas, and it has never been easier to catch COVID-19 in the state. The department is “very concerned” about hospital capacity, stressing that “ICUs across Texas are not able to handle much anymore.”

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

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

According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, COVID-19 patients occupy nearly 49% of the Laredo region’s hospital capacity. That’s a much greater number than any other trauma service region in the state.

The station areas of Abilene and Bryan-College have often reported that no ICU hospital beds have been available as of mid-November. Health officials from those areas were not immediately available for comment.

“We cannot keep up with this increase in the number of positive cases,” said Dr. Seth Sullivan, Brazos County’s alternative health authority, in late December, according to KBTX. “It has certainly turned around in recent 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 number of hospital patients treated for COVID-19 since mid-December.

“The amount of COVID-19 dispersion exceeds the ability to process hospital admissions as a result of people participating or continuing to engage in high-risk, high-contact activities,” Treviño told the Morning Times.

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

Over the summer, some Texas hospitals ran out of drugs, beds, and ventilators as they faced an increase in coronavirus cases statewide. Now, cases across Texas have surpassed the numbers affected in the summer, and Laredo is one of many cities facing overwhelmed hospitals and record admissions for the coronavirus.

Austin health officials opened the Austin Convention Center on Tuesday to prevent ICU admissions – which have hit record highs in the area – from being overwhelmed. The UT-Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium recently predicted that ICUs are expected to reach capacity in Austin soon.

‘The state is gaining momentum. 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 will no longer have hospital beds and that we will have to stretch resources to meet the needs of our community.”

Some emergency departments in North Texas also hold patients because there is no room in the ICU, Dr. Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, told The Tribune earlier this month. Dr. Justin Fairless, an emergency care physician in Fort Worth, said earlier this month that there are coronavirus patients in hospital corridors “because they have nowhere else to turn.”

Treviño has warned that Laredo will be “medically inundated” unless people take action to stop the spread of the virus, including wearing masks and avoiding gatherings.

Disclosure: Texas College of Emergency Physicians is a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, unbiased news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no part in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a full list here.