NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Nueces County leaders are scrambling to figure out what to do after the state of Texas denied an emergency request to bring in more medical personnel to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
"It will all collapse if we don't get this next week right," Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales said. "There's a breaking, there's a tipping point, Michael, and we're at that point."
Canales is not happy that the state turned down her request for a Disaster Medical Assistance Team to come to town. The DMAT request was to help deal with the huge surge in COVID patients which have our hospitals and intensive care units full.
"Unfortunately, we have been denied and this is a big game changer in my mind because it shows you that we're competing against other areas that are also having terrible issues with staffing in their hospitals," Canales said.
That DMAT is the same group of federal medical specialists who were here last summer during our first surge. The County had asked for about 370 of those medical workers and the cost per day for those folks was going to be expensive.
"Remember, if they're coming from out of state, we're going to have to handle their lodging, their travel, their training and their salaries," Canales said. "And so I calculated it to be 1 million a day if we got everything we needed."
But since that's not happening, Canales found another solution.
"I will be asking the state for the Texas Guard," she said. "There's got to be something that can be done. I just cannot believe we did it last year and we can't do it again this year. There has to be more resources that are out there."
There is some good news, the non-profit, International Medical Corps, is coming to town to help out the health district. This isn't their first time here. Our area received their aid in Oct. 2020.
"They have some individuals who are going to be here and they can help us so we're really excited about that," Health Director Annette Rodriguez said. "They can help us with vaccines. They can help us with training and so any help we can get right now is exciting."
Until more help arrives, Canales is pleading with people to get vaccinated, wear a mask, social distance and wash their hands.
Your life and that of your family and neighbors may depend on it.