HOUSTON – Houston is currently on trend with the rest of the country with hospitalizations from COVID-19 being down.
The latest dashboards from the Texas Medical Center showed the weekly average of new COVID cases hit a record low for the last year, and hospitalizations are the second-lowest.
Doctors said although it’s great news for the city, it’s also what they expected to happen once vaccines became more available.
“This is actually what was being forecast for the country. We thought there was going to be a more significant impact of vaccinations. The warming of the weather would have some impact, and that natural immunity from people who have had COVID,” Dr. David Callender, President and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System, said. “This is the trend that we expected and what we want to see and the number of hospitalizations are going down.”
Typically, approaching a holiday weekend, good news comes with a warning of what could happen if you gather with others, but the tone today is different and better.
“The trend will continue. COVID is not going to completely go away. We still have work to do to get more people vaccinated, but we think as we go forward, particularly as we get into the summer, that we will hit a baseline with a low level of ongoing needs for hospitalizations,” Callender said.
Now, the only concern seems to be a dwindling momentum of people getting vaccinated. As variants emerge, there’s a concern that even people with natural immunity won’t be as prepared to handle an infection as those who have been vaccinated.
To help aid people still struggling to get a vaccine, the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas Military Department created a mobile site that will drive a vaccine to your neighborhood.
The mobile site said all you have to do is have at least five people committed to getting the vaccine and they’ll bring it to you.
If you’re interested in this option, you can reach them at 844-90-TEXAS.