https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/11 ... overloadedHospitals in Texas are warning of strained resources during a week in which more than 10,000 coronavirus patients have been admitted to hospitals in the state.
At least 53 Texas hospitals had intensive care units that were at maximum capacity. Two in Houston have been so overwhelmed that officials ordered overflow tents to be erected outside. In Austin, intensive care units were running short of beds. And in San Antonio, virus cases reached alarming levels not seen in months, with infants as young as 2 months tethered to supplemental oxygen.
Recently, Texas has averaged more than 14,000 new cases a day, more than double the number seen just two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. The spike comes as about one in five U.S. hospitals with intensive care units, or 583 total hospitals, recently reported that at least 95 percent of their I.C.U. beds were full as the highly contagious Delta variant fuels surges across the country.
The sudden increase of infections has refocused national attention on the efficacy of masks and comes as Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas remains firm in his refusal to allow cities and school districts to mandate masks. To manage the surge, he appealed to out-of-state health care workers to travel to Texas, where coronavirus-related hospitalizations are projected to exceed 15,000 by the end of August, according to the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. David Persse, Houston’s chief medical officer, blamed state officials for giving inadequate attention to the importance of vaccinations to stem the surge.
Earlier this week, at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, an increasing number of children were being admitted with severe symptoms of coronavirus. Many arriving with unrelated illnesses were also testing positive for the virus, hospital officials said.
Dr. Abhishek Patel, who works in the hospital’s pediatric I.C.U., walked in and out of a room where a 6-month-old and a 2-month-old were battling severe Covid-19 infections and were breathing with the aid of supplemental oxygen. This week alone, he said, two teenagers who had other underlying health problems succumbed to the virus.
— Edgar Sandoval and Giulia Heyward