Hospitals in Texas are turning to 2,500 medical workers from other states to help combat a surge in Covid cases amid increasingly younger and healthier patients who didn’t get vaccinated against the virus.
The state is preparing for what could be its most aggressive fight against the coronavirus yet as the delta variant rips across the country and hits states with low vaccination rates and relaxed public health measures, particularly in the South and Midwest.
Covid infections in Texas have exploded in the last few weeks, averaging about 15,419 new cases per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, up 34% from a week ago and more than double the seven-day average of 6,762 just two weeks ago.
“What’s concerning about the trajectory is that we’re seeing a much more rapid increase in the number of cases,” said Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
“We are seeing unvaccinated people that are younger as opposed to earlier in the pandemic when we saw a lot of hospitalizations over 65. Now, the largest and the highest increases that we’re seeing are the 18-to-49-year-olds, and a lot of these people don’t have underlying illnesses.”
