Federal assistance is being activated and deployed to the Houston region, including the Department of Defense's Urban Area Medical Task Force and a disaster medical assistance team from HHS, as area hospitals face the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the state.
As of July 10, Houston's trauma service area reported 2,826 hospitalized patients confirmed with COVID-19, which is higher than any other trauma service area in Texas. Areawide, 98 ICU beds were available and 1,768 hospital beds were available out of 13,351 in total, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
The trauma service area containing Dallas is the next hardest-hit, with 1,872 hospitalized patients confirmed with COVID-19, 259 available ICU beds and 2,142 available hospital beds out of 14,494 staffed beds in total.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement Friday that he worked with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Trump administration to secure federal medical support. The DOD's Urban Area Medical Task Force will arrive Monday and the medical assistance from HHS "has just been deployed," per the governor’s Friday evening statement.
The federal deployments headed to Houston add to a DOD medical task force operating in Bexar County as well as seven federal assessment teams operating in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, McAllen, Laredo and El Paso this past week.