CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Despite encouraging news about vaccines that could be here in a matter of weeks, dire predictions Tuesday in the daily COVID 19 news briefing.
"More than one in every thousand people in the Coastal Bend has died from COVID 19. We're expecting that by the end of February, this number might double," said Dr. Chris Bird with the Coastal Bend COVID 19 task force.
If we're not careful, Bird says the situation could get rough.
"If we go to that normal Thanksgiving celebration scenario where COVID could get a little super charged, we're looking at 120 more patients at the peak in hospitals in the Coastal Bend," said Bird.
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Bird says the difference between now and this past July is that we've lost the FEMA nurses who were assisting in Coastal Bend hospitals. Those extra staff have been transferred to harder hit areas.
Also Bird says we've lost a number of local nurses to higher pay from FEMA who are sending those staff to other places.
"This 120 more is not a trivial amount. It's a large amount more," said Bird. "It's a substantial proportion more patients that will put a huge strain on the local hospitals. We don't want this to happen"
Earlier at a Nueces County Medical Society news conference, local hospital officials pleaded with the public to cancel any and all holiday gatherings because of what could be a disastrous burden on the local medical resources.
Dr. Mary Dale Peterson, the C.O.O. at Driscoll Health says "My concern and I'm not speaking for the other health care systems is that state resources may or may not be available because were seen such surges elsewhere in the state."
Despite that warning, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales told us that she believes the state will come through if needed.
"The state of Texas has been pretty terrific when it comes to helping us find resources for staffing into this date I've never been able tonight for fill a staffing requirement has been asked of our city or county request," said Canales.
Officials at both news briefings stressed that the next wave of COVID 19 infections has already begun for the Coastal Bend and that could lead to more deaths before any vaccine distribution.