The largest pediatric hospital in the United States said Tuesday it has begun admitting adult patients to provide more hospital capacity in Texas, where coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to soar.
Texas Children’s Hospital said it was admitting adult patients across its campuses to free up more hospital bed space in the Houston area.
The number of COVID-19-positive hospital patients in Harris County, which encompasses Houston, has nearly tripled since May 31.
“Our power on the local level was stripped away and we started opening up,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said Monday. “I said two months ago I thought we were moving too quickly, too fast, and now we find ourselves where we are today.”
Also Monday, Texas reached an 11th consecutive day of record COVID-19 hospitalizations. Gov. Greg Abbott called the trend “unacceptable” but did not announce any new measures to slow the spread of the virus.
In another development, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department said late Monday that a youth at the Giddings State School tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first confirmed case of the virus at a Texas juvenile detention facility.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe illness, including pneumonia, and be fatal.
