The Tarrant County Public Health director says hospitals are "stretched thin," with just 13 available ICU beds across the county Wednesday. Vinny Taneja spoke at a virtual town hall Wednesday evening organized by Commissioner Devan Allen.
Wednesday, Tarrant County Public Health reported 1,446 COVID patients in the county's hospitals. Taneja said COVID-19 patients are using 31% of total hospital capacity in the county and 54% of ICU beds.
The county announced an additional 2,286 cases and 15 deaths Wednesday.
"We're not slowing down at all. In fact, we're accelerating, and that is concerning," Taneja says. "Hospitals are starting to be stretched thin to their capacity."
Tarrant County Public Health has reported a total of 183,080 cases of COVID-19, 130,469 recoveries and 1,777 deaths.
Taneja says 22,000 people signed up for the vaccine the first day the county's website was available December 29. He says 44,000 signed up December 30. A total of about 290,000 people had signed up through Wednesday.
Taneja is urging people to register for the vaccine at the county's website. Right now, registration is limited to Phase 1A and 1B, including health care workers, first responders, people over 65 or who have an underlying health condition.
"We have to wait on vaccine supplies to ramp up, and it's in short supply," Taneja says. "Every week, we're getting a few thousand doses we're burning through the same week. Then we're waiting for the next shipment to arrive."
He says some people signing up now may have to wait two to three weeks for an appointment, but he is asking people not to register twice if they do not hear from the health department quickly. Taneja says 21,000 people registered a second time; he says that makes it tougher for the county to gauge demand and locations where demand for the vaccine is highest.
Despite delays, Taneja says he also wants to assure people the vaccine is safe.
"These are very safe even though they were developed under Operation Warp Speed at a very fast pace," he says. "It was the technology that allowed them to be made that fast. They used mRNA technology. This is a lab generated vaccine, so you can leverage lab capacity and do it fast. At the same time, what that means is it doesn't have the virus in there. It's going to give you COVID-19. It's not a vaccine that contains the virus."
The Department of State Health Services says hospitals across the 19-county region in North Texas had 4,104 COVID-19 patients Wednesday using 25.04% of capacity. January 1, hospitals in the area had 3,764 COVID-19 patients.
