In North Texas, intensive care bed space is running out. Only 2 pediatric ICU spots remain in region

As the number of COVID-19 Delta cases increases, only two pediatric intensive care beds – out of a total of 285 – were available on Tuesday in the North Texas region of 19 counties.

Dallas County hospitals reported 3,270 new cases over the weekend, compared with 2,750 cases in 14 days last month.

Hospitals are 90 percent busy and under staffing, said Clay Jenkins, a Dallas County judge. According to W. Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, only 28 adult intensive care beds were available in Dallas County as of Tuesday.

As of Monday, a total of 588 ICU beds would have been available if no one had been admitted in the county, and 1,556 in the region, according to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.

According to a DSHS spokesman from Texas, there were only 329 of 7,451 beds in the state’s full intensive care unit. This is the lowest number of available ICU beds the state had during the entire pandemic when cases first surfaced here in March 2020.

On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott sought out-of-state aid for COVID-19 surgeries and sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association urging hospitals to voluntarily postpone elective surgeries. He passed an executive order last month prohibiting local governments from issuing mask mandates.

About 65% of the new cases in Dallas County involve people under the age of 40, and 80% of the new cases are from unvaccinated people, Jenkins said.

“If you haven’t been vaccinated, it’s just a matter of when and not if you will get COVID,” Jenkins said.

According to Texas Health and Human Services, approximately 54% of the eligible population of the state and Dallas Counties are fully vaccinated.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins spoke to the media on Tuesday about the current state of the Delta Coronavirus variant outside the Dallas County Health and Social Services building. (Tom Fox / Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / employee photographer)

Unvaccinated flood hospitals

The same scenario is playing out across the state, where most hospitalizations and critical care patients are unvaccinated, said Dr. Emma Dishner, an infectious disease doctor at North Texas Infectious Disease Consultants, a clinical research center in Dallas.

“This virus is becoming more contagious and deadly,” said Jenkins. “The Delta variant won’t be the last we’ll face so get vaccinated.”

Love said the low number of ICU beds is of concern not only because of rising COVID-19 cases, but also because of other medical needs that require intensive care.

If the beds are full and someone walks in after a car accident, for example, they may have nowhere to go. Some hospitals in more rural counties have already closed their emergency rooms. Love said if hospitals fill up, they may be forced to send patients out of the state.

“This is extremely critical,” he said. “When you run out of capacity, when you run out of staff, it becomes a safety issue.”

In 19 counties in North Texas, over a third of adult ICU patients have COVID-19. Hospital stays have more than quadrupled in 30 days.

There are 82 adult supervised ICU beds available in the area and the county breakdown is as follows: 28 in Dallas, 33 in Tarrant, 12 in Collin, and nine in Denton. These four counties are the only ones in the region with available beds in the adult intensive care unit – the intensive care units in the rural counties are fully utilized.

On Tuesday, 64 confirmed pediatric COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in the area. Love said this is the highest number of pediatric COVID-19 patients ever treated.

Hospitals in central Texas reported that there are only two full intensive care beds in the area, and they are seeing a tripling of pediatric patients, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Although lower than any other age group, the number of pediatric patients hospitalized with the coronavirus is also growing. When asked directly whether masks should be prescribed for children under the age of 12 who are not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. John Hellerstedt, Commissioner of the Texan Ministry of Health, this is a “leadership decision”.

“The medical recommendation is that all of these measures are additive and that masking indoors increases the safety of this environment,” he said.

Dr. Joseph Chang, chief physician at Parkland Memorial Hospital, told senators that mostly unvaccinated people show up at the hospital. From mid-January to mid-July, 1,100 COVID-19 patients were admitted and 27 of them were vaccinated.

Jenkins urged residents to mask themselves in high-risk situations, whether vaccinated or not, and said people should be vigilant to receive COVID-19 tests.

“Masks suck, but it’s a small sacrifice to save lives.”

Officials expressed concern about the start of the school year as people under the age of 12 cannot yet be vaccinated. They asked all students to wear masks in schools. On Monday, the Dallas ISD announced that it would require masks despite Abbott’s order. Jenkins said he hopes other school districts will follow suit.

“I don’t know when the people of this country became so weak in their patriotism that they couldn’t stand the idea of ​​wearing a mask in the grocery store or having their child wear a mask in school,” said Jenkins.

Middle-aged people at risk

Middle-aged Texans are now driving the surge in hospital admissions, replacing the elderly, whose hospital admissions rates fell after the Texas vaccination drive, according to data presented to the state Senate Tuesday by the Committee on Health and Human Services.

“It is clear that the delta variant is spreading very quickly in our communities, it is quite dangerous and now, if you will, relatively young age groups require hospitalization,” Hellerstedt told the senators.

The Delta variant is a stronger, more contagious strain of the virus. Even vaccinated people who might not get a severe case of COVID-19 could spread it to eight or nine others, Love said, including those who aren’t vaccinated.

Dr. Philip Huang (left) and Dr. Emma Dishner of Infectious Disease Advisors in North Texas, Director of Health and Human Services for Dallas County, answered media questions about the current state of the coronavirus delta variant outside the Dallas county health building Tuesday. (Tom Fox / Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / employee photographer)

Dr. Dallas County Health Director Philip Huang said he had heard stories from hospital doctors about patients expressing regrets and wishing they had been vaccinated.

“This is heartbreaking,” said Huang. “That is avoidable. If you haven’t been vaccinated, please do so. It is save. It’s effective. “

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