Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

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Texas hospitals are on the sidelines again

A spike in Covid-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant, is hampering the health system in Texas, where health officials are warning of overburdened hospitals, a dangerous crisis that the state also experienced in early February.

At least two hospitals in Houston have overflow tents outside. In Austin, the hospitals in their intensive care units have almost no beds left. And in San Antonio, children aged 2 months and over are bound to supplemental oxygen.

My colleague Edgar Sandoval, who covers South Texas for The Times, recently reported from a hospital in San Antonio. He told us that the strength of the climb has left many in the state flat.

“You were kind of surprised this time,” said Edgar. “The people of South Texas, like the rest of the country, thought the virus was behind them. And even the experts believed that even if they had surges from the Delta variant, they would make it. But in the past few weeks we’ve seen an explosion of cases. Medical officials in Texas are still trying to figure out how to deal with this impending surge as we speak. “

More than 10,000 Texans were hospitalized this week and at least 53 hospitals were at full capacity in their intensive care units. Hospitals are taxed across the south in places like Huntsville, Ala., Jackson, Miss., New Orleans, and Miami. As with previous waves this summer in Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the vast majority of patients hospitalized in Texas are not vaccinated.

The surge also comes because the state’s Governor Greg Abbott refuses to issue statewide mandates that require masks while banning local officials from doing so. Instead, to handle the surge, Abbott has asked health workers outside of the state to travel to Texas and help the congested hospitals.

Some health officials have blamed the state for insufficient efforts by the government to increase vaccination rates, which Abbott describes as an issue of individual rights.

Still, local officials in some of Texas’ largest cities, including San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Austin, have defied Abbott’s orders and introduced new masking requirements in city buildings and schools, citing community prevalence and low vaccination rates.

Even for Texas, the worst is far from over. According to the University of Texas at the Austin Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations across the state is expected to rise to well over 15,000 by the end of this month.

“Every day, hospitals are trying to figure out how to cope with the flow of people,” said Edgar, for example when treating patients in waiting rooms for lack of beds. “I’m surprised that no plan was implemented after the last climb,” said Edgar. “But here we are.”

Updated

Aug. 12, 2021, 11:24 p.m. ET

Who should wear masks?

Last month, when the contagious Delta variant spread, the CDC worked on its advice. An internal presentation by the Times contained a clear recommendation: “In view of higher transferability and current vaccination protection, universal masking is essential.”

But the agency’s ultimate guide was more nuanced. The CDC advised masking in indoor public spaces in communities with “significant” or “high” transmission, regardless of a person’s vaccination status.

Looking back, some experts think the agency should have just left with a nationwide call to wear masks indoors.

“The messages from the CDC were not optimal,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, vice president of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. “We have to be clear and relatively simple.”

Understand the state of vaccination and masking requirements in the United States

• • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public places indoors in areas with outbreaks, a reversal of the guidelines offered in May. See where the CDC guidelines would apply and where states have implemented their own mask guidelines. The battle over masks is controversial in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
  • Vaccination regulations. . . and B.Factories. Private companies are increasingly demanding coronavirus vaccines for employees with different approaches. Such mandates are legally permissible and have been confirmed in legal challenges.
  • College and Universities. More than 400 colleges and universities require a vaccination against Covid-19. Almost all of them are in states that voted for President Biden.
  • schools. On August 11, California announced that teachers and staff at both public and private schools would have to get vaccinated or have regular tests, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey published in August found that many American parents of school-age children are against mandatory vaccines for students but are more likely to support masking requirements for students, teachers, and staff who are not vaccinated.
  • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and large health systems require their employees to have a Covid-19 vaccine, due to rising case numbers due to the Delta variant and persistently low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their workforce.
  • new York. On August 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that workers and customers would be required to provide proof of vaccination when dining indoors, gyms, performances, and other indoor situations. Municipal hospital staff must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests. Similar rules apply to employees in New York State.
  • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for the country’s 1.3 million active soldiers “by mid-September at the latest. President Biden announced that all civil federal employees would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular tests, social distancing, mask requirements and travel restrictions.

The CDC maintains a map of where people should wear masks indoors, and the rate of transmission is only increasing. By the time the agency issued its revised recommendations, at least 80 percent of Americans should have started wearing masks. The virus has been spreading rapidly in 90 percent of the country since Tuesday.

So what should you do? “When you’re inside,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, told the Times, “you should wear a mask.”

Vaccine rollout

See how the vaccine roll-out is going in your county and state.

What else are we pursuing

• New Zealand will relax its border restrictions next week, but only slightly.

• Russia recorded more than 800 new deaths on Thursday, a record, reports the Moscow Times.

• Officials from the border areas said migrants are not causing spikes in virus cases, calling into question conservative topics of conversation.

• The University of Texas at San Antonio will begin its fall classes remotely, citing community diffusion.

• A self-made robot in Indonesia supplies the quarantined villagers with essentials such as food or disinfectants.

• Some Australian Olympians may have to plan for a “double quarantine” on their way home from Tokyo.

• Workers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Oakland, California who sued the franchise said their employer provided them with dog diaper and coffee filter masks last year. The restaurant just settled the lawsuit.

• The UK economy grew 4.8 percent in the second quarter before the Delta variant took off.

• Siti Sarah Raisuddin, a 36-year-old pop star in Malaysia, died of Covid-19 in the country’s latest and most devastating wave.

What you are doing

My boys are systematically ripping open my house while I am cleaning it. I do my best not to yell at people for not wearing masks. We’re all getting on our nerves, and the light at the end of the tunnel (back to school) is all but extinguished by the willful ignorance and complacency of the mask-hole covidiots.

– Mona Merical, West Des Moines, Iowa

Let us know how you are dealing with the pandemic. Send us an answer here and we may have it published in one of the next newsletters.

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