Covid-19 hospitalizations in North Texas are 90% down from the Omicron peak in January, the lowest numbers recorded since June last year

North Texas – Covid-19 numbers are constantly declining in the last couple of weeks nationwide and so is the case in the North Texas area as we slowly approach the spring months.

On March 6, 2020, Texas recorded the very first Covid-19 case and less than a week later, the WHO declared the disease a pandemic.

The last two years have been tough for everyone, but especially for the hospital workers who were always on the frontlines treating Covid-ill patients.

Despite all the pandemic measures in place and all the medical personnel efforts in battling the deadly virus, more than 85,000 Texas residents have died due to Covid-19 complications as we mark two years since the pandemic started.

Dr. Jay Herd, the chief medical officer at Baylor Scott & White All Saints, spoke with WFAA and explained what doctors went through in the last two years and described all the challenges he and his colleagues faced with the corona pandemic.

“Two years is a long time,” Herd said. “To me, it feels even longer because it has been pretty intense two years.”

According to the most recent data provided by the local health officials, the current number of hospitalized patients in the North Texas area is 90% down from the Omicron peak in January. In addition, the current number of hospitalizations is the lowest since June last year.

However, area hospitals are not operating as they used to prior to the pandemic and it will probably take some time before getting back to regular operations.

“I’m pleased to report it’s looking pretty good,” Stephen Love, the president of the DFW Hospital Council said. “We are very thankful that we are seeing the trending down.”

“We’re still being cautious and still wearing masks and asking our patients and our visitors to wear masks,” Herd said.

“We had people that just said, ‘I can’t to continue to do this, so staffing has been an issue,’” Love said.

Just like many other health experts, Love and Herd believe that is unlikely to see spikes in cases like with the Omicron wave due to decent vaccination rates, immunity in people who recovered from the virus and the treatments like pills and monoclonal antibodies who should additionally prevent high number of hospitalizations due to Covid-19 in the future.

“The whole problem is we don’t know what the next strain is going to bring,” Herd said.

While CDC recently loosened the face mask guidelines and now almost the entire country is considered safe and no masks are required, health experts believe everyone should remain very careful and wear face masks indoors, get vaccinated and maintain social distancing when possible.