The North Texas Hospitalization Rate Exceeds 15 Percent For Seven Days, Texas Healthcare Workers Expected To Get Vaccines As Early As This Month And More.

Earlier this week there was cause for concern due to the the increase in North Texas hospitalizations. Now, the region has officially hit the threshold for Gov. Greg Abbott’s red line of returning to tighter business capacity restrictions.

To make matters worse, Thursday also saw a record-breaking high in nationwide deaths since the pandemic began, meaning things are only expected to get worse — at least in the short-term — moving forward.

  • On Thursday, Dallas County reported 2,122 additional cases and 3 new deaths. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Dallas County to 130,830 and the total death toll to 1,224.

  • Also as of Thursday, 4,572 of 5,893 Dallas hospital beds were occupied, bringing total occupancy to 78 percent. For ICU beds, 740 of 925 were filled, and 401 of Dallas’ 1,001 ventilators were in use. As noted previously, Dallas is seeing its highest hospitalization rates since the pandemic began.

  • Thursday Marked the seventh straight day of hospitalizations above 15 percent in North Texas. According to Gov. Greg Abbott’s October executive order, once a region hits such a grim milestone, restrictions are to be tightened again. This means businesses with 75% capacity must now scale back to 50% capacity, while bars without food licenses must close. However, for bars that have such licenses and are now recognized as “restaurants” via a loophole, they can continue to operate at 50%. Additionally, elective surgeries must also be put on hold.
  • According to a report from The Dallas Morning News, Texas is expected to receive 1.4 million doses of the vaccine this month for healthcare workers. Greg Abbott announced the CDC allotted 1.4 million doses of vaccines, with 224,ooo of the Pfizer expected by the week of December 14. In total, doses will be distributed to most of Texas’ 1.6 million healthcare workers.
  • The U.S. breaks yet another record with 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in one day. As of Thursday, new cases were reported to have surpassed 200,000 per day. The virus has already been the cause of 270,000 deaths across the nation, and the head of the CDC says the coming winter months are going to be tough for hospitals and healthcare workers.
  • Wage cuts are causing Southwest Airlines to potentially furlough over 6,800 employees. Warnings were sent out to 6,828 pilots, flight attendants, ramp workers and other employees for furloughs as the company prepares to cut costs during the pandemic. In 50 years, Southwest has reportedly never furloughed or cut employee wages prior to the pandemic. The company has already issued similar warnings to other employees such as mechanics and materials specialists. 
  • According to the DMN, DFW is regaining lost jobs better than any other metro area. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that in October, 62,000 jobs were taken, which cuts its year-over-year losses to less than 100,000. This is the first time that happened since the beginning of the pandemic.
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