DALLAS — As the number of COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations continue to rise across Texas, a North Texas hospital is having to create more room for its COVID-19 patients.
Over the weekend, UT Southwestern's William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital reported 30 positive COVID-19 patients in their facility.
The hospital's COVID-19 unit is now full and its staff has been forced to create additional space for these patients.
The 14-day UT Southwestern forecast predicts Dallas County will see 410 new cases per day continuing until at least July 2. It also projects the total number of hospitalizations to continue increasing.
With the potential for large gatherings during the Fourth of July weekend, UT Southwestern says the "exponential growth" of COVID-19 cases is likely.
The latest version of the UT Southwestern model reports that Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties all show Rt > 1, which means the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading.
This statistic comes from the R0 (pronounced "R-naught") variable. It shows how many new cases come from one single infection.
Since R0 is above 1 in the four main North Texas counties, that means the number of cases is rising.
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Tarrant County reported a 7-day high of 25% positivity on Tuesday. Hospitalization rates in Collin County and Denton County have doubled in the last week, according to UT Southwestern.
In Dallas County, the 21 to 40 age group has increased in COVID-19 case count while the other age groups have remained stable.
About 30% of the critical care COVID-19 cases are younger than 50 and nearly 50% of hospitalizations are of patients younger than 50.
The positivity rate of Hispanic COVID-19 patients is 5 to 7 times the rate of any other ethnic group, according to UT Southwestern.