Governor Greg Abbott says the state is working with the federal Department of Health and Human Services to be ready to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine when it is approved. He says Pfizer and Moderna could both have a vaccine approved by the end of November.
"Both of those are set up for distribution around the State of Texas already," Abbott says. "On top of that, we have these therapeutic drugs like the drug the president took after he got COVID. Remember how quickly he recovered from COVID."
The FDA has approved Eli Lilly's antibody therapy for use treating mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms. The approval does not include use on patients already in the hospital or receiving oxygen.
"Fewer people will be getting COVID, people will be recovering from COVID quicker, fewer people will be hospitalized, and deaths will go down," Abbott says.
Abbott says the vaccine will first be given to first responders, health care workers and seniors. He says initial distribution will also focus on areas where COVID-19 patients take up the most hospital capacity.
"I hope people don't hear about these vaccines and all of a sudden, let their guard down and go, 'Oh, a vaccine's coming,'" says DFW Hospital Council President Stephen Love. "It's not going to be here anytime soon. We've got to do our part."
Wednesday, hospitals in Texas reported an increase of 676 COVID-19 patients to 6,779, the most since August 13. COVID-19 patients now occupy 10.08% of hospital capacity in Texas.
Wednesday, hospitals around El Paso reported COVID-19 patients occupied 41.46% of capacity, COVID-19 hospitalizations represented 31.18% capacity around Amarillo and 24.55% of capacity around Lubbock.
In DFW, 11.97% of capacity was occupied by COVID-19 patients, an increase from 10.35% a week earlier. Hospitals in North Texas had 1,929 COVID-19 patients Wednesday, 1,756 available beds, 181 available ICU beds and 1,926 available ventilators. Love says COVID-19 patients take up about 12% of total capacity, but they now account for almost 15% of total patients in the area.
Love says the number of hospitalizations is about 94% of the highest number in July.
"I know it's frustrating. Hospitals want to keep businesses open, we want schools to be open, we want to be as near-normal as possible. Definitely," he says. "However, we've got to coexist with this virus, and we'll need to do it for a period of time that's probably, candidly, eight to 12 months before the vaccine is really distributed to the public."
Dallas County reported 1,304 additional cases Wednesday and three deaths.
"Our COVID numbers for the third day in a row exceed 1,200 cases. Over the last 10 days, five of those days have been above 1,000 cases a day. Yesterday, we saw the second biggest jump in hospitalizations for COVID that we’ve experienced thus far. We are at a very dangerous point in the fight against COVID. We are staring down the barrel of the largest spike that we have seen to date in COVID cases," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins wrote in a statement.
Tarrant County reported 752 cases and nine deaths Wednesday.
Collin County reported 428 cases and four deaths.
Denton County reported 294 cases and no deaths.