DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – Dallas County health officials are concerned about hospital capacity as the number of COVID-19 cases in North Texas continues to spike.
According to Dallas County Health and Human Services, local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The current risk level is red which indicates “Stay Home, Stay Safe.”
DHHS said Tuesday that there were 691 COVID-19 patients in acute care in Dallas County for the period ending on Monday, November 16. The number of emergency room visits for COVID-19 like symptoms in Dallas County was 489 for the same time period, which represents around 23 percent of all emergency department visits in the county according to information reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.
Dallas County Medical Director Phil Huang said that hospitalizations continue to increase rapidly within the county and across the region.
“Our hospitals remain concerned about the unmitigated spread and the strain on their staff,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. “With nationwide increases, unlike the relief provided to NYC in the spring with their surge, there are serious staffing concerns if numbers continue to increase.”
Dallas County reported 645 new COVID 19 cases on Wednesday. Tuesday it reported a record single day case count with more than 1,800.
“There have been problems with the State’s electronic laboratory reporting system in the past and today it appears the system is reporting artificially low numbers to several counties,” said Jenkins. “In the meantime, there is little reason to believe that if the full numbers were reported, they would be different than the trend we’ve been seeing for the last several days or the projections that the medical modelers have made for North Texas.”
As of Wednesday Dallas County reported less than 50 available ICU beds.
Listen to Clayton Neville’s story below:
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