Coronavirus latest updates: Texas Gov. Abbott asks hospitals to halt non-urgent procedures as admissions soar - The Washington Post

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is asking hospitals to stop non-emergency medical procedures to free up space for covid-19 patients as the rise in new infections could threaten the availability of hospital beds to treat them.

Yet as Abbott touted the move as “taking action" to combat coronavirus cases that are now averaging more than 10,000 each day in the state, his order to ban mask mandates is facing challenges. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat and elected official, on Monday evening said he filed a temporary restraining order against the ban, declaring the governor lacks the legal authority to impose it.

“This is about ensuring there’s adequate medical resources and hospital bed capacity to take care of people with [coronavirus] and any other condition that requires medical care or hospitalization,” Jenkins tweeted. A children’s advocacy group also filed a lawsuit challenging Abbott’s order on Sunday. A representative for Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hospitalizations across the United States have soared past the peak seen in last summer’s Sun Belt surge, straining resources in hotspot states, such as Texas, which have been resistant to renewing pandemic restrictions. Current hospitalizations for the virus passed 68,000 nationwide on Monday — well over last summer’s high of about 66,000 — as daily new admissions approached 15,000.

Florida and Louisiana on Monday reported hospitalizations at all-time records. In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said on Monday there were only eight ICU beds open statewide and that the state had seen its largest single-day increase in hospitalizations. In Texas, where the latest state data shows nearly 9,500 people are currently hospitalized with covid-19, Abbott announced that out-of-state healthcare workers would come to assist.

Here are some significant developments:

• Nine severely ill covid-19 patients on ventilation in a hospital in Vladkikavkaz, southern Russia, died after an underground oxygen line ruptured on Monday evening, local authorities told Russian media.Russia’s Investigative Committee was investigating a possible criminal case. Health authorities were also investigating.
• Thailand recorded its highest daily death toll from the coronavirus, reporting 235 covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, along with nearly 20,000 new covid-19 cases.
• Singapore has fully vaccinated 70 percent of its population, with 79 percent having received at least one dose, the city-state said. The high rate of vaccinations, among the best in the world, has led Singapore to ease some restrictions, like allowing dining in restaurants to resume.
• Australia police will increase the enforcement of lockdown rules in Sydney as the state of New South Wales reported 356 locally transmitted coronavirus cases on Tuesday, its highest daily increase of the pandemic.

The chief executive of a sprawling medical district in Houston warned recently that hospitalizations are spiking at a pace not seen in a year while the region faces a shortage of nurses. An “urgently hiring” health system in Texas, Hunt Regional Healthcare, has temporarily closed one of its emergency medical centers while citing a “CRITICAL COVID SURGE.”

Intensive care units in Houston resemble a “warzone," a doctor there told the local ABC affiliate. The region including Austin has just six ICU beds for a population of nearly 2.4 million, state data showed. The area including Dallas had just 100 ICU beds available for a population of more than 8 million.

Abbott said his request for hospitals to voluntarily scale back procedures “for which a delay will not result in loss of life or the deterioration of a patient’s condition” is meant to ensure the state’s hospitals and residents “have the resources and support they need to mitigate the virus."

It’s a retreat to the measures Abbott and other governors took in the early months of the pandemic, before coronavirus vaccines were widely available. In June 2020, Abbott ordered a stop on non-emergency procedures amid an increase in cases.

In a rebuke of the ban, the Dallas Independent School District will require, starting Tuesday, that all students and staff wear masks in school buildings. Announcing the decision on Monday, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said that “with numbers getting significantly worse, this decision is urgent.”

Robyn Dixon contributed to this report.

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