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Texas Governor Greg Abbott talking at a press convention on the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Might 18, 2020.
Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool | Getty Pictures
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking for two,500 further medical personnel from throughout the nation to assist alleviate strain on the state’s health-care system imposed by this summer time’s Covid surge.
Texas started requesting exterior help simply two weeks in the past, when Abbott introduced that the Texas Division of State Well being Companies had coordinated a primary wave of over 2,500 out-of-state employees to reply to the delta variant. With this newest name, Texas may have roughly 8,100 exterior medical personnel, together with nurses and respiratory therapists.
Covid sufferers are at present taking over greater than half of all intensive care beds in Texas as of Thursday, in contrast with 30% nationwide, based on the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
“The medical personnel and gear deployed by DSHS will present essential assist to our well being care services as they deal with hospitalized instances of COVID-19,” Abbott mentioned in an announcement.
The Texas Division of State Well being Companies can be distributing ventilators, hospital beds, coronary heart screens and oxygen machines, the assertion mentioned. Greater than 1 / 4 of Texas’ practically 52,000 reported hospital inpatients have the coronavirus, HHS recorded Thursday.
Texas additionally introduced the opening of 9 monoclonal antibody infusion facilities earlier this month, providing present Covid sufferers a remedy choice to restrict extreme illness and hospitalization. Abbott helps vaccines and the usage of antibodies however opposes masks and vaccine mandates, banning native governments and colleges from enacting these necessities and threatening any who disobey with a $1,000 high quality.
Although the tempo of rising instances has lately slowed in Texas, the state nonetheless reported a seven-day common of 16,970 new instances as of Wednesday, a rise of 10% from every week in the past, based on a CNBC evaluation of information from Johns Hopkins College. However well being officers have warned {that a} slowing down in an infection charges should not essentially a dependable barometer of progress in opposition to the coronavirus.
“I believe you will need to acknowledge that normally case charges rise after which stabilize, however sadly, hospitalization charges rise after that after which stabilize later,” Dr. Barbara Taylor, an assistant dean and infectious illness professor on the College of Texas Well being Science Heart at San Antonio, mentioned in an interview with CNBC. “It normally lags by at the least a few weeks.”
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