Darrell Pile with SETRAC is concerned that this current surge will surpass all of those prior.
He said what’s caught everyone off guard is how many people it’s infecting when the assumption was it wouldn’t be that harmful.
“Those base assumptions might’ve been right, but I don’t think we imagined the volume of people. So, just with the increase in the volume of people that got this, we’re seeing an increase in the number of those that require hospitalization,” said Darrell Pile, CEO of Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council.
Every day we are setting new records for children being hospitalized because they were mostly unaffected in previous surges. As of Wednesday, Jan. 5, there are 125 pediatric patients in the hospital with COVID.
Here’s how we compare to all previous surges, according to SETRAC:
SURGE 1: On July 14, 2020: Hospitals across our 25 nearby counties reached a peak of 2922 patients with COVID in general beds. In summary, inpatient COVID volume grew by an average of 47 patients every day over 54 days.
SURGE 2: On January 11, 2021: Hospitals across our 25 nearby counties reached a peak of 2,605 patients with COVID in general beds. In summary, the inpatient COVID volume grew by an average of 30 patients over 65 days.
SURGE 3: On August 24, 2021: Hospitals across our 25 nearby counties reached a peak of 3,298 patients with COVID in general beds. In summary, the inpatient COVID volume grew by an average of 62 patients over 45 days.
SURGE 4: As of January 4, 2022: Hospitals across our 25 nearby counties are experiencing a surge of COVID patients with COVID 2,220 in general beds. In summary, the inpatient COVID volume has grown by an average of 74 patients every day (but is growing faster in recent days).
“I’m hoping that this peaks in less than 45 days, and so, it’s a shorter time span,” Pile said. “I’m hoping that the requirements of the inpatients might be less intense, which means the length of stay in the hospital could actually be less than it was during prior surges and that allows the beds to be used and used again and again.”
Since there is likely a lot of infections in our area, check here for an updated list of testing sites in our area: