ICUs around the nation reach capacity; US adds more cases in first days of August than in all of May: Latest COVID-19 updates

Hospitals around the nation are once again overwhelmed by the amount of COVID-19 patients.

Texas hospitals tallied more than 10,000 coronavirus patients for the first time since early February. The state has only 329 staffed beds for intensive care among 8,283 hospital beds left for about 30 million people, according to state health data released Tuesday.

And hospital admissions have tripled in the last month among children 17 and younger, Dr. Desmar Walkes of the Austin-Travis County health authority told county commissioners. In June, 11 children were hospitalized with COVID-19, and by July that has more than tripled to 34. A majority of cases, Walkes reported, are among children from 10 to 18 years old.

In Florida, all three hospital systems in one county are over capacity and are continuing to deal with a strong surge in patients, Brevard County Emergency Management Director John Scott said. During the week of July 30 to Aug. 5, Brevard had a total of 189.3 ICU beds at its seven general hospitals – 176.6 ICU beds were occupied on average.

The surge in COVID-19 cases also prompted Brevard County Fire Rescue Chief Mark Schollmeyer to urge residents to stop calling 911 for non-emergency calls.

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