Q: What regions of Texas are above the 15% hospitalization threshold?
A: Texas hospital regions other than just Victoria’s are surpassing Gov. Greg Abbott’s 15% threshold.
The Texas Department of State Health Services divides the state geographically into 22 trauma service areas. If 15% or more of total beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients in a trauma service area for seven consecutive days, many businesses in that area need to reduce their capacity limits to 50% in accordance with Abbott’s statewide orders.
For seven or more consecutive days, trauma service areas surrounding Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Dallas, Texarkana, Tyler, Lufkin, El Paso, Waco, College Station, San Antonio, Beaumont, Victoria and Laredo had 15% or more of total hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
This accounts for more than half of the state’s hospital regions.
On Sunday, those same hospital areas as well as the areas surrounding Killeen, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley maintained a COVID-19 hospitalization rate above the 15% threshold.
Laredo and its surrounding hospital region continue to lead the state in COVID-19 hospitalization rates.
Data are updated daily on the Texas Department of State Health Services online dashboard.
