SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Monday asking the state to send additional state-contracted nurses as soon as possible due to a “dramatic surge in hospitalizations.”
County hospitals already have 411 state-contracted nurses and respiratory therapists helping amid the current surge in COVID-19 cases.
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Local officials told Abbott that the number of patients in local hospitals has increased 285% since Christmas. There are currently 778 people in local hospitals due to COVID-19. The county’s positivity rate is now at 27.3% — meaning more than 1 in 4 people who test for COVID are positive for the virus. It’s the highest positivity rate the county has seen since the start of the pandemic.
The letter states that omicron is also affecting first responders and hospital clinicians with “hundreds of our nurses out each day.”
The officials also said they expect hospitals to reach capacity quickly as COVID-19 patient admissions increase rapidly.
Letter to Governor Abbott (01!10!2022) by Julie Moreno on Scribd