Harris County Judge says hospital admissions rose slightly in past few days, peak not reached

HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and county health officials said Tuesday that the county had not yet seen the peak of the coronavirus outbreak yet.

Hidalgo was joined by Executive Director of Harris County Public Health, Dr. Umair Shah.

Here are the highlights of what she talked about:

Uptick in hospitalizations

Hidalgo showed a graph from the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council that showed that there was an uptick in hospitalizations in the past couple of days. This announcement came amid discussions at the national, state and local levels about reopening the economy.

The county judge said she uses the SETRAC data to make decisions about stay home orders as it shows whether or not the curve has been flattened enough to avoid overwhelming the local healthcare system.

The graph she showed in the press conference showed local hospitalizations increase steadily since March 12. There was a peak of hospitalizations around March 25 when the stay home, work safe order was issued for Harris County.

After that, the number of hospitalizations remained steady until about April 9 when it began to taper off. However, Hidalgo said around April 16, there was an uptick in hospitalizations in the county, indicating the worst was not over.

“We need to get this curve down,” Hidalgo said.

More testing needed

Hidalgo announced 46 new cases of coronavirus in the county Tuesday, in addition to the 20 cases Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced earlier Tuesday. She said it was imperative that people understand that the county had not yet reached the peak of the outbreak.

She said with the new mobile testing units and partnership with Walgreens, the county has been able to double it’s testing capacity. The mobile testing unit has been an asset as officials are able to test high-risk populations in nursing homes and the Harris County Jail.

With the county seeing asymptomatic people testing positive for coronavirus, Hidalgo said anyone who might think they have been exposed to the virus should get tested.

“The road to normalcy is squarely through testing," she said.

Watch Hidalgo’s full Tuesday press conference below: