A Hunt County emergency hospital is temporarily closing due to a "critical COVID surge."
Hunt Regional Emergency Medical Center at Commerce will close temporarily at midnight Saturday as its staff is moved to Hunt County Healthcare's largest hospital in Greenville to assist with COVID-19 patients. The Commerce hospital hopes to have its emergency room open again by the end of August, according to a post on its Facebook page.
"We are experiencing a public health crisis and need your help," Hunt County Healthcare wrote in the post. "If you have not been vaccinated, please do so as soon as possible. Wear a mask when indoors and avoid non-essential gatherings."
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In the event of an emergency, Hunt Regional Healthcare advised people to either call 911 or go to facilities in Greenville or Quinlan. For minor emergencies, people were advised to visit Urgent Care in Greenville.
The numbers of new confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and the positivity rate in Texas have risen dramatically in the last two weeks, climbing to marks not reached since February.
"It eventually could happen here if we do not stop the spread of this delta variant," President of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Stephen Love said. "I do not see it eminent but this is a very serious surge and many people in North Texas continue not wearing masks, not getting vaccinated, gathering in large crowds and the delta variant is going after them as it is quite contagious. This surge (our fourth surge) is very serious and many act as though things are back to normal. Things are not back to normal. If we all worked together we could prevent this horrible surge."
