There is concern in the Texas Medical Center about the dramatic slope upward in COVID-19 cases

HOUSTON — As Houston area doctors and nurses do their best to handle this increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, there is concern in the Texas Medical Center about this dramatic slope upward in COVID-19.

“This is the wrong trajectory and the numbers for us, our city, especially Houston, are going up at a much more faster rate than we would ever want to be and we gotta stop this thing," Dr. Faisal Masud, of Houston Methodist, said.

Houston-area health officials say we have plenty of room in our hospitals, as a whole. However, they say some individual hospitals have been overwhelmed.

"Yesterday morning at 9 a.m., four of the hospitals were saying that they were saturated already, so that was 9 o’clock in the morning on a Monday, we usually don't see that in the summertime," Dr. David Persse, Houston Public Health Authority said.

Those hospitals were full and were asking ambulances to go elsewhere.

MORE ON COVID-19

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Persse says there are two things leading to this.

"The governor allows elective surgeries to return, they're ramping up again, that’s filling the hospitals, at the same time COVID is happening, so it’s not just the COVID, it’s the fact that hospitals are opening back up,” Persse said.

He's also noticed another disturbing trend – more young people are getting the virus.

"That’s consistent with what we're seeing as we're walking or driving around town, it’s the younger folks who are out gathering, so it’s not a huge surprise," Persse said.

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