A judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday filed by a former Houston Methodist doctor.

Houston Methodist Hospital says it is seeing an “alarming spike” in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the Houston area.

More than 170 Houston Methodist employees were suspended without pay for the next 14-days after not complying with the hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

HOUSTON – Houston Methodist Hospital becomes one of the first big hospitals to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for everyone who works there. “As part of Houston Methodist management, we must lead by example and get vaccinated ourselves. At Houston Methodist, we’ve made a commitment to offer our patients unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation. You now have until April 15 to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or get an approved exemption. “The number of our employees getting sick with COVID has greatly reduced as the number of vaccines has increased,” Hackett said.

HOUSTON – On Friday, Houston Methodist Hospital answered questions about the vaccine rollout during a virtual town hall. Health experts covered a range of topics but wanted to focus on helping educate communities of color about COVID-19. They have programs in the works, that include partnering with minority organizations and churches in to help spread the word about the vaccine. “Really the goal is to bring death down and ultimately control the pandemic,” said Dr. Marc Boom, the president and CEO of Houston Methodist. Arianne Dowdell, VP and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, was the moderator of the town hall.

HOUSTON – Houston Methodist held a COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall on Friday at 10 a.m. The town hall was designed to help people understand the COVID-19 vaccine and its rollout, particularly to help educate communities of color about the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Houston Methodist. Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist, Dr. Victor Narcisse, associate division head of Hospital Medicine and Arianne Dowdell, vice president, chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer at Houston Methodist answered questions during the event. KPRC 2 broadcast a live stream of the 10 a.m. event. Watch it, in full, in the video player below.

More than 40% of Americans now live in areas running out of ICU space, with only 15% of beds still available. According to data through Thursday from the COVID Tracking Project, hospitalizations are still high in the West and the South, with over 80,000 current COVID-19 hospital patients in those regions. “Initially, when the COVID surges were hitting one part of the country at a time, traveling nurses were able to go to areas more severely affected. “There’s a lot of these agencies that are out there charging absolutely ridiculous sums of money to get ICU nurses in,” Boom said. Augusta University Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, is treating adult ICU patients, under age 30, in the children’s hospital.

HOUSTON – Oren Murphy is a former minesweeper for the U.S. Navy and 60 years later, he is navigating the deadly challenge of COVID-19. KPRC 2 Investigates discovered foreign nationals who have traveled to Houston and elsewhere are getting vaccinated. Dr. Joseph Varon of United Memorial Medical Center says he first heard of foreign nationals receiving vaccines intended for Texans here in Houston at the end of last month. Following a roundtable meeting with public officials on Tuesday, we asked Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom about foreign nationals out of the county on hospital databases who are receiving vaccines. Back home in Houston, Boom told KPRC 2 Investigates, “There have been 60,000 people vaccinated.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott held a roundtable discussion and deliver remarks alongside health care professionals on Tuesday at Houston Methodist Hospital.

HOUSTON – Houston Methodist is holding a clinic this weekend. Registration for the clinic was open to the public and publicized on a state website, hospital officials said. “We get it,” said Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist. “We were selected by the state as a hub because we’ve gotten vaccines into arms so fast.”According to Boom, Methodist has administered 44,000 first doses and 13,000 second doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Boom said he is optimistic that there will be a faster acceleration of the vaccine’s arrival in a couple of weeks.

Here are things to know for Wednesday, Dec. 2:1. There is a small chance that some of Wednesday’s storms will produce strong wind gusts. For the first time, KPRC 2′s Bill Spencer is getting answers for hundreds of people -- all at once. They said they have been getting high water bills for months and they are confused as to why. As Spencer learned, things are so out of sorts and an independent investigation is underway.

Texas Medical Center doctors warn of alarming increase in COVID-19 casesTop doctors with the Texas Medical Center said there’s an alarming increase of COVID-19 cases in the Houston-area in the last few weeks. “We’re seeing significant growth of this virus, significant number of more cases, and sadly hospitalizations of our sickest of patients,” said Bill McKeon, President and CEO of the Texas Medical Center. McKeon said the medical center had 155 new hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Wednesday morning, which was a 43-percent increase from a month ago. Texas Medical Center top health leaders warn not to get lax with the COVID-19 during holidaysTop health leaders with the Texas Medical Center warn with the holidays approaching that it’s critical for people not to get lax with the Coronavirus. This year, amid the pandemic, the shop will implement several COVID-19 safety measures to ensure the safety of its patrons and staff.

HOUSTON – Top health leaders with the Texas Medical Center warn with the holidays approaching that it’s critical for people not to get lax with the Coronavirus. Five TMC leaders had a discussion Wednesday over Zoom focused on alarming trends they said they’ve observed concerning COVID-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations. Boom, the health leaders with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center and MD Anderson Cancer Center, said there’s been a significant growth of the virus. The TMC health leaders said testing is up at their hospitals and that’s encouraging. The health experts also said they’re looking forward to at least two vaccines in 2021, along with at-home COVID-19 tests.

HOUSTON – Top doctors with the Texas Medical Center said there’s an alarming increase of COVID-19 cases in the Houston-area in the last few weeks. “We’re seeing significant growth of this virus, significant number of more cases, and sadly hospitalizations of our sickest of patients,” said Bill McKeon, President and CEO of the Texas Medical Center. McKeon said the medical center had 155 new hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Wednesday morning, which was a 43-percent increase from a month ago. They were treating 300 COVID-19 patients at Houston Methodist Hospital locations alone, which was an increase from 200 eight days ago. But with the news of two possible COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, doctors said there’s hope in the future.

A MD Anderson Cancer Center building in the Texas Medical Center in Houston on June 26, 2020. These internal messages highlight the growing strain that the coronavirus crisis is putting on hospital systems in the Houston region, where the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has nearly quadrupled since Memorial Day. As of Tuesday, more than 3,000 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus in the region, including nearly 800 in intensive care. Just as New York hospitals did four months ago, some Houston hospitals have posted on traveling nurse websites seeking nurses for crisis response jobs.If they dont have the nursing staff, then you cant place the patient, Pea said. Houstons public hospitals, Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson, dont have those same resources.

HOUSTON – Leaders from the four largest hospital systems in Houston said Thursday that they are in good shape to handle a surge of coronavirus patients if it happens. Still, CEOs from four leading hospitals in the medical center say they’re prepared to handle surge capacity. Houston hospital leaders discuss capacity Houston-area hospital leaders are discussing capacity at their facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, the hospitals in the Texas Medical Center are equipped to deal with a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. “What they are showing is an increase in cases, increase in hospitalizations, increase in intensive care unit stays, and an increase in deaths for the next couple of months,” he said.

Statewide, there were 14,260 available hospital beds and nearly 1,500 intensive care unit beds as of Tuesday. Statewide, there were 14,260 available hospital beds and nearly 1,500 intensive care unit beds as of Tuesday. In the hard-hit Houston region, hospitals have begun moving coronavirus patients from crowded ICUs to other facilities. Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association, also said Texas has enough hospital capacity, though she added that hospitalizations numbers are "definitely a concern." Facilities treating coronavirus patients could face challenges that go beyond bed space like staffing shortages.