Hemphill County Hospital CEO Christy Francis reported on Tuesday afternoon that nine COVID-related patients were being treated at the hospital—three of them admitted in the previous 24-hour period. The spike in cases had forced medical staff to relocate the COVID wing to a different hall, where more beds were available, she said, adding that they still could only accommodate 11 patients, and were very near full capacity.

Francis also noted that her urgent request to the Panhandle Regional Advisory Council’s Emergency Operations Center for four additional nurses had been granted, and that the relief crew had arrived and been put to work this week. “We added two on our day shift, and two on night shift,” she said.

The nurses will provide relief for a staff that is badly depleted and fatigued. At least 15 HCH staffers—over a third of them nurses—were unable to work last week, due either to positive virus tests or quarantine.

In the last week of COVID-19 testing at HCH, 29 new positive cases were identified in Hemphill County residents, bringing the total of positive tests to 59 active, and 211 overall. Thirty-four out-of-county cases were identified in the last seven days.

Hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases in Texas have risen to levels not seen since August, the Texas Tribune reported at midweek. Statewide, 87,591 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last two weeks, and 18,320 Texans have died, to date. These figures do not include the deaths of people with COVID-19 who died of an unrelated cause.

At midweek, COVID-19 patients occupied nine percent of total hospital beds in Texas. In the Panhandle trauma service region alone—which serves 25 counties and a population of 420,000—81 percent of hospital beds are in use and only 207 are available for new patients. Of those, only six are available for intensive care. Over 330 COVID-19 patients are being treated in this region, and only 107 ventilators are available.

“The latest surge has been felt acutely in El Paso, Lubbock and Amarillo and has left nearby smaller rural hospitals unable to transfer their most gravely ill patients to receive higher levels of care,” the Tribune reported. “Experts blame social events like birthday parties and game day gatherings, and they say widespread pandemic fatigue has hastened viral transmission as fewer people are following guidelines like wearing masks and staying home.”

Evidence of the spike in COVID cases could also be seen at school.

On Tuesday, CISD Superintendent Lynn Pulliam reported seven new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases at school. The new cases include one 7th-grade student who was already in quarantine; a senior who was last on campus October 30, involved in school activity October 31, and had observed face-covering protocols; a BES staff member, last on campus October 30, who had observed safety protocols; and two district-level staff members, one sophomore student, and one CHS staff member— all of whom had not been on campus since becoming contagious.

This was the sharpest increase in on-campus cases to-date this school year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases at CISD to 42.

GLOBALLY

Case Count: 47,582,064

Death Count: 1,216,453

Recovered: 31,713,577

UNITED STATES

Case Count: 9,390,726

Death Count: 232,693 Recovered: 3,705,130

Recovered: 3,705,130

TEXAS

Case Count: 916,773

Death Count: 18,194 Recovered: 792,286

Recovered: 792,286

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Texas Dept. of Health and Human Services.