Texas Gov. Abbott to deploy 2,500 extra out-of-state medical workers to battle delta Covid surge

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated Thursday the state will get 2,500 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 answer the delta variant. With this newest addition, the state could have roughly 8,100 exterior medical personnel, together with nurses and respiratory therapists.

Covid sufferers are presently taking over greater than half of all intensive care beds in Texas as of Thursday, in contrast with 30% nationwide, in keeping with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies.

“The medical personnel and gear deployed by DSHS will present essential assist to our well being care amenities as they deal with hospitalized circumstances of COVID-19,” Abbott stated in a press release.

The Texas well being providers division can also be distributing ventilators, hospital beds, coronary heart displays and oxygen machines, the assertion stated. Greater than 1 / 4 of Texas’ almost 52,000 reported hospital inpatients have Covid, HHS recorded Thursday.

Texas additionally introduced the opening of 9 monoclonal antibody infusion facilities earlier this month, providing present Covid sufferers a therapy choice to restrict extreme illness and hospitalization. Abbott has stated he helps vaccines and using antibodies however opposes masks and vaccine mandates, banning native governments and faculties from enacting these necessities and threatening any who disobey with a $1,000 high quality.

Although the tempo of rising circumstances has lately slowed in Texas, the state nonetheless reported a seven-day common of 16,970 new circumstances as of Wednesday, a rise of 10% from per week in the past, in keeping with a CNBC evaluation of information from Johns Hopkins College. However well being officers have warned {that a} slowdown in an infection charges just isn’t essentially a dependable barometer of progress in opposition to the coronavirus.

“I believe it is very important 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, stated in an interview with CNBC. “It normally lags by a minimum of a few weeks.”