Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ Texas hospitals are running out of drugs, beds, ventilators and even staff.

Many hospitals are no longer accepting transfer patients in order to maintain space for a surge that’s expected to come.

In some parts of Texas, the surge is already here.

bit.ly/3iXTEz3

2/ One patient in Anahuac was flown by helicopter to a hospital 120 miles away.

Ambulances are waiting up to 10 hours to deliver patients to packed Hidalgo County ERs.

Midland and Odessa hospitals have turned away patients from West Texas facilities. bit.ly/3iXTEz3

3/ As the tally of coronavirus infections climbs higher each day, Texas hospitals are taking extraordinary steps to make space for a surge of patients. bit.ly/3iXTEz3

4/ Epidemiologists say the state’s hospitals may be in for a longer, harder ride than places like New York, where hospitals were stretched to capacity in the spring. bit.ly/3iXTEz3

5/ State data shows the hardest-hit regions include most of Texas’ biggest cities, as well as large swaths of South and Central Texas and the Gulf Coast. bit.ly/3iXTEz3

6/ "There’s nothing else other than COVID. … You treat COVID, you look at COVID, you see COVID, you smell COVID, you hear COVID. Everything’s COVID," said Dr. Jamil Madi, the medical director of an ICU in Harlingen. bit.ly/3iXTEz3

7/ In Houston, data shows that the busiest hospitals in the area are increasingly telling emergency responders that they cannot safely accept new patients.

In Dallas, federal medical teams are heading to Parkland Memorial Hospital to help treat an onslaught of patients.

8/8 Health care workers are urging Texans to wear masks, wash their hands frequently and avoid contact with others as much as possible to help prevent new coronavirus infections. bit.ly/3iXTEz3