A Conroe man is in ICU after being shot multiple times at an apartment complex Saturday.

COVID-19 hospitalization numbers have plunged to their lowest levels since the summer of 2020, offering a much needed break to health care workers and patients alike following the omicron surge.

A staffing crisis and the surge from the omicron variant have pushed the number of Texas ICU beds to a new record low. The shortage affects not just patients with the coronavirus, but every Texan seeking serious medical care.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced on Monday that she raised the county’s COVID-19 threat level to red, the highest level.

The staff is tired, the omicron variant is bearing down and the intensive care unit beds are filling fast at a hospital in the French city of Marseille.

As hospitals across Europe brace themselves for a surge in coronavirus cases because of the new omicron variant, Westerstede Clinical Center is cautiously hopeful it can weather the storm.

The Slovak government has approved a two-week national lockdown amid a record surge of coronavirus infections.

Slovakia’s leaders have proposed a national lockdown as hospitals across the European Union country are hitting their limits amid a record surge of coronavirus infections.

Germany’s health minister says the rapid rise in coronavirus cases means it’s likely everyone in the country who isn’t vaccinated will have caught COVID-19 by the end of the winter, and some of those will die.

An ICU nurse set to appear on Dr. Phil describes her near-death experience at the Astroworld Festival.

Ukraine has hit another record for daily coronavirus deaths amid a spike in infections fueled by public reluctance to receive vaccines.

Russia’s COVID-19 cases have hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections that has persisted for more than a month.

Russia has set another record for daily coronavirus deaths as it struggles through a long surge of infections that has prompted restrictions throughout the country.

Daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Russia remain at their highest numbers of the pandemic.

Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit another daily record several days after a nationwide order for many Russians to stay off work took effect.

Ukraine's president is pleading with citizens to get vaccinated as daily infections have soared to another all-time high.

Russia has reported another daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases as a surge in infections has prompted the Kremlin to tell most people to stay away from work starting later this week.

Russia is reporting a record high number of coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths as the country approaches a week of nonworking days aimed at stemming the sharp surge in cases.

Ukraine’s coronavirus infections and deaths have reached all-time highs for a second straight day, a growing challenge for the country where the share of vaccinated is one of Europe’s lowest.

In Russia's fifth-largest city, Nizhny Novgorod, seriously ill coronavirus patients at an infectious disease hospital lie in crowded wards with little space between beds.

The World Health Organization says there has been a 7% rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week.

The vaccination situation in Europe is a story of two regions.

While an ICU bed is still hard to come by in Southeast Texas, the number of people waiting for a general bed is decreasing, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council which oversees a 25-county region.

Wednesday was another busy day inside the COVID unit at UTMB’s League City hospital.

Houstonian Daniel Wilkinson, who served two deployments in Afghanistan, died of treatable gallstone pancreatitis on Sunday after waiting seven hours for an ICU bed.

Oregon was once the poster child for limiting the spread of the coronavirus, after its Democratic governor imposed some of the nation’s strictest safety measures, including mask mandates, limits on gatherings and an order closing restaurants.

Emergency room doctors in Southeast Texas say they are running out of hospital beds and some patients are waiting hours and sometimes days to be admitted into a hospital.

“It’s going to be close,” one health official said as a record number of Texas hospitals run out of intensive care beds and warn that they may soon have more COVID-19 patients than they can handle.

As coronavirus infections rise among young Americans, so too have deaths in a population once thought to be largely shielded from the worst of the pandemic.

Sheyla Moraes, an intensive care nurse, says this latest surge of the coronavirus pandemic is particularly draining because it was preventable. Listen in the weekend edition of The Brief podcast.

Iconic singer Vicente Fernandez, known colloquially as the king of Mexican music, is in the ICU after he fell at his home in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Officials say the resurgence of COVID-19 in Texas has put some cities’ health systems in dire circumstances, as intensive care unit beds fill up.

It’s a story of love and determination.

Driven by the delta variant, a new wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across the African continent where new cases, hospital admissions, and deaths are increasing.

One bullet pierced James Ortega’s abdomen and another shattered his elbow.

State lawmakers are taking actions to limit the emergency powers of governors — not just during the coronavirus pandemic, but for any future emergencies.

FILE- In this March 19, 2021, file photo, a nurse tends to a patient affected by COVID-19 virus in the ICU unit at the Ambroise Pare clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. The sobering warnings were delivered Sunday in newspaper opinions signed by dozens of Paris-region doctors. Since January, Macron’s government has instead imposed a nationwide overnight curfew and followed that with a grab-bag of other restrictions. But with infections soaring and hospitals increasingly running short of intensive-care beds, doctors have been stepping up the pressure for a full French lockdown. AdThe doctors predicted that softer new restrictions imposed this month on Paris and some other regions won't quickly bring the resurgent epidemic under control.

The body of a COVID-19 victim lies in a body bag at the ICU of the Sao Jose municipal hospital in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)SAO PAULO – Brazil topped 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so amid a spike in infections that has seen the South American country report record death tolls in recent days. The United States reached the grim milestone on Dec. 14, but has a larger population than Brazil. On Wednesday, Brazil's health ministry reported 2,009 daily COVID-19 deaths, bringing its pandemic total to 300,685. On Tuesday, the country saw a single-day record of 3,251 deaths.

A police officer patrols in the Chatelet area amidst the new coronavirus pandemic, in Paris, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Some of the nation’s governors routinely block access to public records, keeping the public in the dark about key decisions involving the coronavirus pandemic. Polling shows divides by race and politics, with Black Americans and supporters of former President Donald Trump expressing more skepticism about the vaccines. Richard Hall of the Berkshire COVID-19 Vaccine Collaborative spoke to the The Berkshire Eagle. Ad___WASHINGTON - Commercial air travel appears to be on the upswing despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Relatives attend a burial service of a person who died from complications related to COVID-19 at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, March 11, 2021. Ad“We have reached the limit across Brazil; rare are the exceptions,” Dias, who leads the governors’ forum, said. “In the whole country, aggressive use of the public health measures, social measures, will be very, very crucial,” he said. At the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, burials are being done one after another, with mourners and cars lined up awaiting their turn. Associated Press videojournalist Tatiana Pollastri contributed from Sao Paulo.

FILE - Dr. Joseph Varon hugs and comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 26, 2020 in Houston, Texas. HOUSTON – The city of Houston reached a grim milestone of the weekend. Officials said the death toll for COVID-19 has crossed 2,000 people, only a few days after the one-year anniversary of the first Houston-area COVID-19 case. In addition, he reported nearly 500 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths on Sunday. Turner did thank business owners and customers that have continued to wear masks, social distance and practice other COVID-19 safety precautions.

(Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – The number of deaths in Texas due to the illness caused by the coronavirus increased by more than 200 on Saturday while the number of people hospitalized with the virus declined, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. There were an additional 227 COVID-19 deaths, more than 4,900 new cases and 7,535 hospitalizations, a decline of 222 people hospitalized, the department reported. Texas has had more than 2.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 42,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third highest death count in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. The seven-day rolling average of new cases has fallen from nearly 18,980 per day to nearly 5,041 and the average of daily deaths had dropped from 305.7 per day to 127.3, according to the Johns Hopkins data. During the past two weeks, the rolling average of daily new cases in Texas has fallen by 13,849.3, a decrease of 74.7%, according to the Johns Hopkins figures.

In the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, virus cases are suddenly spiking to their highest levels since the pandemic began, and demand for ICU beds is more than double supply. (AP Photo/ Sony Ibrahim Chamsidine)MAMOUDZOU – Mayotte’s main tourist office stands nearly empty, a lonely tropical outpost overlooking a people-less port. The Mayotte islands are the poorest corner of the European Union, tucked between Madagascar and the mainland coast of Mozambique in southern Africa - and were the last spot in France to receive any coronavirus vaccines. Local authorities feel forgotten and say their difficulties in fighting the virus reflect long-standing inequalities between France’s majority-white mainland and its far-flung multiracial former colonies. The French army is sending in medical workers and a few ICU beds, and President Emmanuel Macron’s government pledged Wednesday to step up vaccine deliveries.

This is daily life in La Timone's ICU ward in Marseille, as France grapples with whether to impose a third lockdown and struggles to ramp up the pace of vaccinations. Ad“It’s been tense since the beginning of the second wave, around October or November,” Dr. Julien Carvelli, head of the ICU ward, told The Associated Press. “We’re afraid that, in the coming weeks, we won’t be able to take in and treat all ICU patients,” including those with illnesses other than COVID. But President Emmanuel Macron’s government says it won’t shut down the country again unless its hospitals are again at risk of overflowing with virus patients. His ward was lucky to have a free bed when the hospital’s pediatric department asked for a place for the 16-year-old virus patient.

Last week, state health officials told The Associated Press they were keeping all the data secret because it is complicated and might mislead the public. Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious-diseases control expert at University of California, San Francisco, was among the critics. Gavin Newsom announced a new stay-at-home order that was based on ICU capacity in each of five regions. At a news conference with Newsom, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly promised to reveal some of the information behind the projections. But it’s currently stuck at 9.9% — virtually the same level it was two weeks ago when state officials abruptly lifted the stay-at-home order there.

Currently, COVID-19 patients take up almost half of that region’s hospital capacity, according to DSHS data — the highest percentage in the state. Many cities have had to divert patients to other hospitals as their local ICUs overflow, in addition to expanding and converting available beds to treat ICU patients. Melendez said counting available ICU beds doesn’t give the full picture at Texas hospitals because they are constantly adjusting to accommodate more patients. If an ICU is technically full, he said, many hospitals can still convert some available beds or units outside of that ward to give patients ICU care. Simmons and other Texas health care workers have expressed hope for the future after Texas’ vaccination process began on Dec. 14.

HOUSTON, TX - NOVEMBER 19: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Medical staff members sort lines and pipes connected to a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 19, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas coronavirus hospitalizations continued to edge closer to the 14,000 level Friday as the string of record hospitalizations continued, state health officials said. COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals numbered 13,921 Friday, marking the state’s 12th consecutive daily record, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Texas, health officials announced they will send most of the vaccine the state receives next week to large providers who can conduct large-scale vaccinations. Health officials say the crisis is growing worse after family gatherings and travel over the holidays and the onset of winter, which is pushing people indoors.

California health authorities reported Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals strain under unprecedented caseloads. California health authorities reported Thursday 583 new deaths and a record two-day total of 1,042. Carmela Coyle, the association’s president and chief executive, said the group has been negotiating with state officials but they aren’t acting fast enough. “It’s a slap in the face to safe patient care to actually call charting and documentation ‘red tape,’” she said. State health officials did not respond to questions on how they expect the heath orders to be applied or how many patients or hospitals might be affected.

HOUSTON, TX - NOVEMBER 19: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Medical staff members sort lines and pipes connected to a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 19, 2020 in Houston, Texas. — The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 350,000 as experts anticipate another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths stemming from holiday gatherings over Christmas and New Year’s. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. passed the threshold early Sunday morning. Multiple states have reported a record number of cases over the past few days, including North Carolina and Arizona. The U.S. by far has reported the most deaths from COVID-19 in the world, followed by Brazil, which has reported more than 195,000 deaths.

According to reports, Texas has recorded more than 1,710,000 coronovirus cases, including more than 27,100 deaths. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas hit a new record high for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 for the fifth consecutive day Friday, in a continued surge of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus following holiday gatherings and travel. Texas reported 12,481 COVID-19 patients in state hospitals on New Year’s Day, an increase of more than 1,750 from a week ago. Intensive care units in several parts of Texas were full or nearly full, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. State health officials on Friday reported 12,369 new, confirmed cases of the virus and another 3,658 probable cases.

(Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)AUSTIN, Texas – Texas hit another grim milestone Thursday when it surpassed 12,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, setting a new record high in that category for the fourth consecutive day. At a livestreamed court hearing, the state argued that Austin’s local orders are not allowed under previous statewide orders issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Texas did not object to similar orders previously put in place by other cities, notably El Paso and San Antonio. State officials also counted 349 newly-reported deaths. Texas also had more than 144,000 doses that were expected prior to Christmas not arrive until this week, an agency spokeswoman said.

(Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)DALLAS (AP) — Coronavirus hospitalizations in Texas fell Saturday but continued to hover near their summer peak, as state health officials reported more than 2,500 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths linked to the disease. Intensive care units in several parts of Texas were full or nearly full, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Health officials have wared that holiday gatherings and travel are likely to further spread the virus. There were 2,127 newly confirmed cases of the virus Saturday and another 428 probable cases, according to the health department. Over the past week, more than 14% of coronavirus tests in Texas have come back positive, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Increasingly desperate California hospitals are being "crushed" by soaring coronavirus infections, with one Los Angeles emergency doctor predicting that rationing of care is imminent. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)LOS ANGELES – Medical staffing is stretched increasingly thin as California hospitals scramble to find beds for patients amid an explosion of coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm the state's emergency care system. In hard-hit Los Angeles County, Nerissa Black, a nurse at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, estimated she's been averaging less than 10 minutes of care per patient every hour. California was experiencing “some of the darkest days of our COVID-19 surge,” Gov. Supermarkets have been hit hard by the virus surge, further straining an essential service that remains open during the latest stay-at-home order.

(Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)Texas is nearing 25,000 deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, the second-highest total in the country. On Friday, state health officials reported 294 new deaths due to COVID-19, bringing Texas’ death toll to 24,954. On Friday, the state reported 9,709 people hospitalized with the virus, an increase of nearly 22% over the last month. One in every 262 people in Texas tested positive for the virus in the past week, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The increase in cases and hospitalizations comes as state health officials announced Friday that Texas will receive 620,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccines over the next week.

As one of the man's carers, Brissaud had been more physically intimate with him than many people are with their friends. This is what it is to encounter death, over and over, in the COVID-poisoned days of the 2020 pandemic. It was also where the ICU patient in room No. The man's age and the fact that his death wasn't unexpected made it easier for his carers, Busch determined. She says the virus death of a young lung-transplant recipient made one ICU paramedic “very angry.” Another came to her “in tears, saying, ‘They are all dying.

Fort Bend County Judge KP George elevated the county’s threat level from orange to red Wednesday due to rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. This is not a one person fight,” Judge George said. That’s what we are trying to do by elevating the threat level today,” Judge George said. There is hope absolutely and I am so confident that things will be much better a few months from now,” Judge George said. The county judge said the last thing he wants to do is shut down schools and other businesses or set a curfew, which is why he has raised the threat level.

Some counties have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday. San Francisco resident Michael Duranceau rushed to a market to load up on supplies. “I can’t emphasize this enough – everyone must take personal steps to protect themselves and protect others.”The other three regions — Greater Sacramento, Northern California and San Francisco Bay Area — were all around 21% capacity. The changes begin to take effect Sunday night in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as the city of Berkeley. ___Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, Robert Jablon and Brian Melley in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

Some counties have opted to impose them even before the mandate kicks in, including five San Francisco Bay Area counties where the measures also take effect starting Sunday. San Francisco resident Michael Duranceau rushed to a market to load up on supplies. The 11-county Southern California region, which includes the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, had only 12.5% of its ICU beds available, the California Department of Public Health reported Saturday. The figure was 8.6% for the San Joaquin Valley region, composed of a dozen counties in the agricultural Central Valley and rural areas of the Sierra Nevada. ___Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, Robert Jablon and Brian Melley in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

The health officers in six San Francisco Bay Area regions have issued a new stay-at-home order as the number of virus cases surge and hospitals fill. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)SAN FRANCISCO – The health officers in five San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a new stay-at-home order Friday requiring some businesses to close and banning all gatherings, as the number of virus cases surge and hospitals fill. The Bay Area counties are so closely connected that it was much easier to implement a regional order, officials said. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association in San Francisco said most restaurants “cannot make it financially on takeout alone." ___Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Brian Melley in Los Angeles contributed.

HOUSTON – A team of ICU critical care physicians and scholars will meet at United Memorial Medical Center Friday to share an analysis of scientific data that supports the repurposing of an oral medication in order to prevent and treat COVID-19. The team will announce the results of its research that demonstrates what it says are “the consistent, reproducible, and high effectiveness of this safe, inexpensive, and globally available oral agent in both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19,” according to a announcement about the news conference. The name of the oral medication was not mentioned in the news release about the press conference. Dr. Joe Varon, the subject of a viral photo from Thanksgiving, will be among the experts speaking at the news conference. Varon is Chief of Staff and Chief of Critical Care Services at United Memorial Medical Center and United General Hospital.

“I don’t think there’s anyone studying this carefully that does not think that’s going to happen. We are absolutely going to have a rise, we are without question going to see a significant increase in hospitalizations. “The outcomes from hospitalizations have improved and we’ve gotten better at taking care of patients,” said pulmonologist Dr. Howard Huang. We have learned a great deal throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that informs our preparation for the next potential surge. These plans, which are continuously reviewed and adjusted as needed, include accommodating more critical care patients in our facility and providing additional staff as needed.

Greece has seen a major resurgence of the virus after the summer, leading to dozens of deaths each day and thousands of new infections. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)THESSALONIKI – Greece is set to extend its lockdown measures beyond the end of November given the spread of COVID-19 and the pressure on hospitals, the country's health minister warned Monday. The second nationwide lockdown, including school closures, was imposed earlier this month until Nov. 30. The field hospital is to have 50 normal beds for COVID-19 patients and two ICU beds. On Monday, authorities said the nationwide occupancy of COVID-19 ICU beds was 86% — and roughly 99% for northern Greece.

The facade of the hospital is blackened by smoke from the ICU unit following a fire in Piatra Neamt, northern Romania, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. Romanian officials say a fire at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients has killed 10 people and critically injured seven others as a blaze spread through the intensive care ward designated for people with COVID-19 patients at the public hospital according to the Emergency Situations Inspectorate. (ZIarPiatraNeamt.ro via AP)BUCHAREST – Romanian officials say a fire at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients has killed 10 people and critically injured seven others. The blaze spread through the intensive care ward designated for people with COVID-19 patients at the public hospital in the northern city of Piatra Neamt, said Irina Popa, the spokeswoman for the local Emergency Situations Inspectorate. Popa said all of the people who died or were injured in Saturday's fire except one were hospital patients.

El Paso health officials reported 1,161 new cases of the disease on Thursday, continuing two weeks of record-level cases in the area. El Paso is home to the Fort Bliss Army base, which includes William Beaumont Army Hospital. As of Thursday, the seven-day average of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the El Paso area was 500, with 571 people hospitalized on Thursday, including 159 in intensive care. New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise across the state. Houston's COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations haven't risen as fast as in other parts of the state.

A medical team member is disinfected before leaving the COVID-19 ward at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. Now, a well-oiled machinery saves some lives and loses others to coronavirus, but without the doomsday atmosphere of March and April. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)GENEVA – The World Health Organization has announced a new daily record high in coronavirus cases confirmed worldwide, with more than 350,000 infections reported to the U.N. health agency on Friday. The new daily high of 350,766 cases surpasses a record set earlier this week by nearly 12,000. As the virus continues to surge across Europe and elsewhere, Ryan acknowledged that restrictive measures might be warranted at some point.

Healthcare workers attending to COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) at Na Bulovce hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. A record surge of new coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic in September has been followed by a record surge of those hospitalized with COVID-19. The Czech Republic currently has more people testing positive daily than any other country in Central and Eastern Europe, even neighboring Germany whose population is eight times bigger. The new confirmed day-to-day increase reached a new record high of 5,335 on Wednesday, almost 900 more than Tuesday's previous record. Prime Minister Igor Matovic called the development “a serious moment for Slovakia.” Matovic said he will consider further tightening restrictions for travelers from the Czech Republic.

HARRIS COUNTY – Detectives are searching for the driver of a Toyota Corolla seen on surveillance footage driving away from a hit-and-run accident in Houston that left a motorcyclist in the ICU. He said he was a block away from his home in north Houston. "I was screaming, crying and begging for help. Or, you know, I don’t know what was going on in his mind,” Pulido said. Pulido supports his family as a welder but does not qualify for official paid sick time off and is also uninsured.

At present, Harris County is at the highest threat level: Red level 1. City of Houston launches new initiative to combat human trafficking, domestic violenceHouston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced a new initiative that will target human trafficking and domestic violence in Houston Monday afternoon. Turner said he is expanding the mayor’s office of human trafficking to include domestic violence. He said the office’s new name will be Mayor’s Office of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence, which will be led by Minal Davis. The mayor’s decision to add domestic violence to the office is due to both being forms of gender-based violence.

A medical crew works at a patient affected with COVID-19 in a Marseille hospital, southern France, Thursday, Sept.10, 2020. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)MARSEILLE – All five intensive care beds dedicated to COVID patients are in use at the Laveran Military Training Hospital in Marseille, and its doctors are bracing for more. The 70 ICU beds dedicated to virus patients in France’s second-biggest city and the surrounding Bouches-du-Rhone region were all occupied by Tuesday. The number of ICU virus patients in the region has doubled in the past 10 days and now surpasses 100. Among the new virus patients, Pierre-Yves said, “Some are older but not all.

HOUSTON – New statistics suggest overworked Houston area hospitals may be beginning to turn the corner on the COVID-19 surge. While Houston remains a hot spot for the worst public health crisis, new statistics on hospitalizations are guardedly encouraging. As of Monday, in 147 patients were waiting for a bed, 39 of them needing ICU beds. What does that mean for those patients waiting for a bed in intensive care? The statistics suggest that Harris County can avoid another shut down if the hospitalization rate continues to trend downward.

You have to have an adequate number of ICU beds available to handle a surge in cases. The plan calls for three phases in which the TMC will increase the number of ICU beds. In phase one, where we are as of Monday, 1,330 ICU beds total exist. Officials said 445 of those beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients, the rest are occupied by other seriously ill patients. But the TMC said it can greatly expand that number of ICU beds.

HOUSTON – To help create additional capacity for adult hospitals in the Houston area, Texas Children’s Hospital is now admitting adults, a spokesperson said. Other hospitals in Greater Houston are prepared to “activate surge plans.”COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas have more than doubled in the last month, Gov. “There is a limit to the number of hospital beds that we currently have and hospitals are seriously considering activating their surge plans,” Houston Health Authority Dr. David Persse said. A surge plan is an emergency plan to expand available ICU beds above normal maximum capacities. “When challenged with those surge plans, (which) are very resource-intensive, and that’s probably not something they would be able to do for a long period of time,” Persse said.

Using data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Tribune is tracking how many people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Texas each day.

HOUSTON – Puneet Patni, MD, from Kelsey-Seybold Clinic said while working in the ICU, it’s common to see COVID-19 patients face down on the bed. “When you put them on their stomach, there’s a better distribution of airway pressure … to inflate that section of lung. So, the areas of lung that need to be, need more pressure to be inflated where’s those that don’t need as much pressure don’t over-inflate,” Patni explained. They figured out it’s a lot easier to flip a baby on their stomach when they have respiratory failure,” Cox said. Should all patients try being on their stomach for as long as possible?

HOUSTON – Like many local hospitals, Houston Methodist Hospital opened a special unit to treat critically ill coronavirus patients. They’re calling it the “Coronavirus ICU,” and right now there is a revolving door of 88 patients total in the Houston Methodist system, 24 patients at the Texas Medical Center campus. Nurses working inside the unit said when they manage to discharge one, the next patient comes in. The Texas Nurses Association supports what Carnahan and Catalan said, the number of patients has remained relatively low considering the size of Houston. Houston Methodist Hospital says their ICUs across all eight campuses are at 70% capacity.