CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The number of COVID-19 cases in Texas has skyrocketed, and in Nueces county, cases continue to rise drastically daily.
As of Thursday afternoon, health officials tell KRIS 6 News that 41 people have been hospitalized, and 16 are in the intensive care unit.
Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order suspending elective surgeries in Bexar, Harris, Dallas, and Travis counties, after their hospitals have been swamped with COVID-19 patients.
Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales said if things were to get bad in our area, her team already has looked into a specific site to hold patients.
"This was always foreseeable, and this was why it was important to vet that site and to say 'We don’t know what’s in store for our future,' ” she said.
Health experts have said children don't to seem to be as affected by the novel coronavirus as much as young adults, but Driscoll Children's Hospital Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Dr. Mary Dale Peterson said that, just like other hospitals across Texas, it is ready to help people here if the situation calls for it.
"Just like Texas Children's opened its doors in Houston for overflow, we can do that for young adults and we already have those understandings in place," she said. "(We're) hoping it doesn't get to that, but they feel quite confident that they're doing OK with the current capacity."
With Texas now considered a COVID-19 hotspot, government and medical experts are now putting their focus on new strategies like pausing the reopening of Texas to help stop the rise of hospitalization.