As COVID-19 continues to put more and more unvaccinated Texans in the hospital the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Delta variant now makes up 83% of all new cases in the U.S., a dramatic rise from 50% the week of July 3.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Tuesday there were 3,319 hospitalizations for COVID-19 statewide, 273 more than the day before, and more than twice as many than were hospitalized statewide on July 1.
The state does not report how many of those hospitalized had been vaccinated against the virus or which strains they are infected with.
While medical experts have repeatedly said the vast majority of recent hospitalizations for COVID-19 are among those who remain unvaccinated despite the wide availability of multiple vaccines, there are now a growing number of infections appearing in vaccinated people.
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Stephen Love, the CEO and president of the DFW Hospital Council, told NBC 5 Tuesday the local numbers of people hospitalized with coronavirus are significantly higher than just one month ago.
"We have 911 COVID-19 patients in our hospitals in TSA-E. This represents 6.4% of bed capacity and 19.9% of adult ICU patients," Love said.
As of Tuesday, Love said there are 321 COVID-19 patients in Tarrant County hospitals, 228 in Dallas County, 158 in Collin County, 40 in Denton County, 34 in Hunt County, and 23 in Rockwall County.
"As we have said before, the majority of the patients are not vaccinated," Love said. "As a point of reference, we had 287 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals on June 20 so as you can tell, our hospitalizations have increased significantly in 30 days."
According to data from the state health department, Dallas-Fort Worth's TSA-E has more COVID-19 hospitalizations than any other metro area in the state.
The numbers reported by the state, in the chart above, are typically a day behind the numbers reported by local health authorities such as the DFW Hospital Council or local county health departments.
Discovered in October 2020, the Delta variant is estimated by public health officials in the U.K. to be between 43% and 90% more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain.
"The reason it's so formidable is the fact that it has the capability of transmitting efficiently from human to human in an extraordinary manner, well beyond any of the other variants that we've experienced, up to now," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's chief medical advisor, said during the hearing.
