Local hospitals looking at two-phase surge plan if current trends continue

HOUSTON – The sharp rise in coronavirus cases since Memorial Day has Houston doctors and hospitals preparing for the worst.

Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine studied the rate at which people become susceptible to the coronavirus, get infected and recover along with transmissibility and came to a concerning conclusion about the number of hospitalizations by mid-July.

Harris Health says they are at 1165 ICU bed capacity at LBJ hospital and 77% at Ben Taub Hospital, 40% of those ICU patients have COVID-19.

Houston Methodist says the numbers of COVID-19 patients are up at 328 as of Tuesday, but their ICU numbers are down. They said they are able to handle those numbers right now.

For the entire Texas Medical Center, about 26% of ICU beds are filled with COVID-19 patients. Hospitals in the Texas Medical Center now looking at a two-phase surge plan.