The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council said it has noticed an “increase” in the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
“We don’t want people to panic. We want people to know that COVID-19 cases are rising and that this is not the same situation as last year,” Dallas said. said Stephen Love, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Hospital Board.
He said North Texas hospitals have seen a steady increase in patients since June.
Love said that on June 21, there were 73 cases, compared to 323 on September 1.
- September 1: 323 patients with coronavirus infection hospitalized, 25 of whom are children
- August 21st: 237 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized, 18 of whom are children.
- July 21: 134 patients with novel coronavirus infection hospitalized, including 3 pediatric patients
- June 21: 73 patients with novel coronavirus infection hospitalized, including 2 pediatric patients
“Talking to infectious disease doctors and looking at some of the reports coming into the state, it’s generally people who are hospitalized that are older or have some underlying health conditions. . . . Right now, we’re seeing a lot of people testing positive, and that’s a good thing because when they test at home, they test positive and they actually have the virus, but it’s not severe enough to bring them to the hospital.” said Love.
Although the recent numbers are much lower than in August 2022, when DFW hospitals had 800 COVID-19 hospitalizations, health care workers still want people to be cautious. ing.
“Anytime you have an infectious disease, you need to be careful, and we know that flu season is approaching, and there are new vaccines coming out for COVID-19 that people want to take. When you see that, you definitely want to get the vaccine.” There’s the influenza vaccine, and now there’s the RSV vaccine,” Love said.
With schools reopening and people returning from summer travel, there has been a noticeable increase in COVID-19 cases.
“We see the trend as being upward. This is consistent with the national trend,” Christian Grisales said. Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson.
He said it’s a good time for people to be proactive, as influenza and RSV season also begins.
“That’s what we have to do, take every precaution we can to prevent people from getting sick and going to the hospital,” Grisales said.
He said the vaccine appears to be helping keep people from being hospitalized because even though they can be infected, the disease is not severe enough to require hospitalization.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said new coronavirus vaccines are expected to be available around the end of this month and are expected to target different strains of the virus.
“When you talk to infectious disease doctors, they point out a couple of things. One is that some of the vaccines are starting to kind of wane, so to speak, because these are new variants. Yes, these are all cousins of Omicron, and they all infect XB B XB B 1.5 I hope we get it,” Love said.
He said that as of last check with state and local health officials, the latest strain of COVID-19, known as pirola, had not yet been detected in Texas.