COVID-19 Update 8/31/2021
As the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 spreads and sends unvaccinated Texans to the hospital with serious illness, hospitals are under enormous pressure to make room for growing numbers of patients. Each week, about 200 hospitals in Texas report their current ICU bed capacity to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Between Friday, Aug. 20th, and Thursday, Aug. 26th, at least 100 Texas hospitals reported that their ICU beds were filled to capacity. Hospital staff has never been in shorter supply, which deepens the strain on all departments, including emergency rooms, respiratory therapy, and even labor and delivery. Without the capacity to take on new patients — and equally thin resources elsewhere to transfer them to — doctors fear they’ll have to start making difficult decisions about care in order to save the most lives possible.
Gov. Greg Abbott has announced the Texas Department of State Health Services would deploy state-funded relief workers to hospitals, and 8,100 have either arrived from other states or are expected soon. It’s the second time the state has taken such action. At the height of the state’s winter surge, almost 14,000 medical workers were deployed across the state, according to DSHS. From July 2020 to early August of this year, the state spent more than $5 billion in federal disaster funds and coronavirus relief funds on medical personnel.
Meanwhile, the mask mandate battle continues in Texas schools. governor Abbott’s Executive Order GA-38 expressly bans any form of a mask or vaccine mandate by a public entirely or official. As of Monday, eighth five of Texas’ 1100+ districts, including all of the largest districts, have received an “out of compliance” letter from AG Paxton. Another ten previously received one, but have since changed their practices to conform. And on Thursday the Texas Supreme Court sided with Abbott in staying a mask mandate issued in Bexar County (San Antonio) and “others like it” while it considers the case and writes a full opinion. Stay tuned.
