UVALDE, Texas – The COVID-19 delta variant surge continues to severely impact children across the state of Texas, including in Uvalde County.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital confirmed Friday to KSAT that a child was admitted due to COVID-19 -- its first pediatric admission so far.
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“We have seen an increase in cases in children and this week, we saw our first pediatric admission for COVID,” the hospital said in a statement.
UMH has not released the age of the patient nor their condition.
Although Uvalde County, like most counties in Texas, is amid another COVID-19 surge, UMH officials said it hasn’t seen as many hospitalized with the virus as during the last two surges.
“We have recently seen an increased volume of COVID patients in our ER and hospital admissions, but we are not seeing the volume we have seen in the previous two surges,” UMH officials said. “This time last year, we were almost exclusively seeing only COVID patients present to the ER.”
This year, the hospital is seeing several COVID-19 admissions on top of other regular emergency needs, including stroke, cancer, cardiac condition, etc. As of March 1, UMH has had 65 COVID-19 admissions.
As of 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, the hospital said it currently has 18 active COVID-19 admissions, though this number is subject to change due to the surge.
UMH’s highest patient volume day for the ER was July 5, with 101 patients. Hospital officials said the average in July was 72 patients per day.
Still, due to the increased COVID-19 admissions, the hospital said transfers have been more difficult, and it has kept patients in the ER for “an extended period of time, only as needed.”
Currently, Uvalde County’s positivity rate resides at 23.8%, and an estimated 223 COVID-19 cases are active.
To see the latest COVID-19 numbers in Uvalde County, click here.