Local hospital reaching COVID-19 capacity

CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital — San Marcos (formerly Central Texas Medical Center) is reportedly at capacity on any given day for COVID-19 patients, Director of Public Safety Chase Stapp announced at a special called San Marcos City Council last week.

Hays County COVID-19 patients needing to be hospitalized have been diverted to Austin and San Antonio hospitals up until two weeks ago, after a week of record breaking cases statewide and hospitals in Houston coming very close to full capacity. San Antonio saw a 500% increase in hospitalizations last month.

“What we are seeing in Texas this week is alarming,” Stapp said. “Tuesday and Wednesday (last week) both set new records for largest single day increase in new cases.”

Stapp painted the severity of the crisis in San Marcos reporting 1,230 total cases Thursday, June 25 after reporting 71 cases at the same meeting just two weeks prior: A 1,632% increase in just two weeks.

CHRISTUS began keeping COVID-19 patients locally and are at capacity of treating those patients on any given day. That is different from their overall hospital capacity, which is unclear. They also have three of their six ventilators in use as of Thursday afternoon last week.

Once they reach capacity, they will divert severe COVID-19 patients to Round Rock or New Braunfels.

Ascension Seton Hays in Kyle is not at full capacity and has plenty of beds left, according to Emergency Management Coordinator Rachel Ingle. The majority of their 22 ventilators are also still available as of last week.

Ingle is working with public safety officials to develop a regional plan in preparation for exceeding capacity but did not have any more details available at the time of the meeting.

This report comes after Hays County’s announcement of 10 free testing days coming up in July from the Texas Department of Emergency Management. TDEM will also begin providing free masks to those who come to get tested.