Dallas is running out of pediatric ICU beds, official warns. 'Your child will wait for another child to die.'
REUTERS/Octavio Jones
- COVID-19 cases are up 90% over the last two weeks in Dallas County, Texas.
- The area has a below-average rate of vaccination.
- While space is tight, local hospitals insist they have the capacity to provide pediatric care.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Hospitals in the Dallas metropolitan region are nearly out of space for children in their intensive-care units, a local official said Friday.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said parents seeking care for their sick kids might not be able to do so within the city.
"Your child will wait for another child to die," Jenkins said, according to the Associated Press. "Your child will just not get on a ventilator. Your child will be care-flighted to Temple or Oklahoma City or wherever we can find them a bed, but they won't be getting one here unless one clears."
Jenkins, who is authorized to issue public health orders during a local emergency, earlier this week issued a mask mandate for public schools and other government institutions, defying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has tried to prohibit local governments from issuing such requirements.
Despite Jenkins' remark, some local hospitals said Friday that they are still available to accept new patients.
"Capacity is tight but we are not sending patients to other hospitals at this time," Cook Children's Health Care System, in Fort Worth, announced on Twitter Thursday. "If the situation arises where we cannot accommodate a patient, we will find a bed for them at an appropriate facility."
Dallas County, home to 2.6 million people, is now averaging 1,080 new cases per day, up 90% over the last two weeks. Just 44% of Dallas County residents are fully vaccinated, below the national average of 50.6%.
According to county officials, the vast majority of new cases - 84% during the week ending July 31 - have been among residents who are not fully vaccinated.
"If you have been vaccinated but a loved one of yours has yet to get vaccinated, approach them in a spirit of grace and understanding and get them the factual information along with your heartfelt concern for their wellbeing and for their community," Jenkins said in a statement earlier this week.
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