SAN ANTONIO — The City of San Antonio held news conference Friday, along with a White House vaccine expert, to discuss local efforts to vaccinate more people.
The conference took place at 10:45 a.m. Friday at City Hall. You can watch the video here:
Dr. Bechara Choucair, the White House Vaccination Coordinator, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Judge Nelson Wolff and local leaders will provide the latest COVID-19 information, vaccination efforts.
"As the City of San Antonio and Bexar County work together to encourage more people to take a COVID-19 vaccine, this visit emphasizes this public health priority, especially given the concerning increase in Delta variant infections here in San Antonio and across the nation," the press release says.
To visit a clinic or pop-up location, click here.
This news conference comes as the number of COVID-positive patients in area hospitals continues to skyrocket. Health officials are sounding the alarm for children.
For most kids, school begins in about three weeks, so there is a very short window of time to get the Delta variant of the coronavirus under control.
"We're clearly seeing a younger patient population in the hospital, people in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s," said Dr. Robert Leverence, Chief Medical Officer for UT Health Physicians at UT Health San Antonio.
Metro Health's latest report showed 727 COVID-positive patients in hospitals. That is close to four times the number that were in hospitals just three weeks ago. The number in the ICU of 205 is more than three times what it was three weeks ago. The number on ventilators, five times the number of three weeks ago. And hospitals are seeing more and more children.
"In the last COVID wave, the oldest person we had in University Hospital was 18-years-old. We have one in the hospital right now that is 11-months-old," said Judge Wolff.
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