Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that state health officials will be deploying additional medical personnel and equipment to assist health care facilities in Texas that continue to battle COVID-19.
Abbott said the Texas Department of State Health Services will send 2,500 staff to facilities throughout Texas including hospitals and nursing homes. This will bring the total to 8,100 medical personnel that have been deployed statewide.
According to the DSHS as of Thursday, there have been 2,948,801 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Texas with 54,455 coronavirus related deaths.
“The medical personnel and equipment deployed by DSHS will provide crucial support to our health care facilities as they treat hospitalized cases of COVID-19,” Abbott said in a press release.
He added that Texans can do their part to reduce the spread of the coronavirus by getting vaccinated.
Abbott said the DSHS is also providing medical equipment requested by Texas medical facilities including ventilators, oxygen concentrators, heart monitors, IV pumps, feeding pumps, and hospital beds.
Previously, 5,600 medical personnel, consisting mostly of nurses and respiratory therapists, were authorized for deployment.
This operation follows Abbott’s directive on Aug. 9 that DSHS utilize staffing agencies to provide out-of-state medical personnel to Texas health care facilities to mitigate the surge of COVID-19 cases in Texas. The additional deployment of personnel will be fully funded by the state through Sept. 30, the press release said.
