North Texas COVID-19 hospitalizations back to February levels as Delta variant spreads

DALLAS - Both Dallas and Tarrant county commissioners addressed the growing number of hospital cases from COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Hospital bed occupancy for the region is back up to levels last seen in February as doctors say the Delta variant is spreading among unvaccinated groups.

North Texas hospitals have 1,886 COVID-19 patients currently and nearly all of them are unvaccinated, officials say. For context, on July 8 the entire state of Texas had 1,888 COVID-19 patients.

There are currently 202 adults on ventilators and 40 confirmed pediatric patients.

"That number is actually three times the volume of a month ago so these numbers are extremely concerning," said Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services Director.

Dallas County has only 19 available ICU beds. Officials said there were 526 visits to emergency rooms and 77 admissions to Dallas County hospitals on Monday.

"Comparing to June 19, when we had seven, so it’s an eleven-fold increase on the numbers of admissions," Huang said.

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Tarrant County, like Dallas County, is dominated by the delta variant and the community spread is accelerating.

Vinny Taneja, Tarrant County Public Health Director, said 14.2 percent of its hospital capacity is COVID-19 patients. That’s 636 people in the hospital battling COVID-19.

"We're up there in numbers," Taneja said.

But he reiterated to Tarrant County Commissioners there is a solution.

"The solution is simple, folks. Let’s get vaccinated because that’s a sure shot way - pun intended – it’s a sure shot way to get out of this pandemic," Taneja said.

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