COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas have dropped to their lowest level since October, but local health officials say they worry numbers could increase again after spring break. Many districts in the area are on spring break this week.
"We'll see what happens after spring break, but caution's in the wind," says Tarrant County Health Director Vinny Taneja. "We're not out of the pandemic yet."
Taneja says hospitals in Tarrant County had 270 COVID-19 patients Monday using 5.72% of capacity. The Texas Department of State Health Services says hospitals across the 19 county region had a total of 846 COVID-19 patients using 5.39% of capacity.
A total of 3,980 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals across Texas, the smallest number since October 11.
In Tarrant County, Taneja says ICUs had 65 open beds Monday. At their lowest point, he says hospitals had just six available ICU beds. Taneja says, even as more people get vaccinated, hospitalizations may increase again because of parties over spring break.
"The message hasn't really changed," Taneja says. "These are the right things to do: wear a mask, maintain a six foot distance. This is what keeps me up at night. People gathering with no masks. Social distancing is not really possible with large crowds."
Taneja says Tarrant County is "making good progress" with vaccinations. He says about 19% of residents have been vaccinated.
Through Monday, Taneja says 342,962 doses of the vaccine had been administered in Tarrant County. He says the county is trying to increase awareness of Trinity Metro's service, providing rides to vaccination sites in Arlington. More information can be found at tarrantcounty.com/vaccinerides .
Taneja says 881,000 people have signed up for the vaccine in Tarrant County. He says 93,000 duplicates were removed when the same person registered several times. He says Tarrant County has about 639,000 active registrations now. Of those, 534,000 are currently eligible. The rest will be eligible when access is expanded.
People can register for the vaccine in Tarrant County at this website.
