Area leaders Friday pleaded with residents to get vaccinate against COVID-19, warning unvaccinated patients are making up more than 98 percent of the death toll while pushing the region’s short-staffed hospitals near capacity.
Across the Rio Grande Valley and around the nation, the pandemic has become a “crisis of the unvaccinated,” officials said during a press conference Friday at Harlingen City Hall.
Meanwhile, they warned more children are becoming infected as the highly contagious delta variant drives cases to levels recorded at the pandemic’s height here during the summer of 2020, when the Rio Grande Valley’s death toll ranked among the nation’s highest.
“The fear shouldn’t be of the vaccine — it should be of COVID,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. told reporters.
“The hospitals are at capacity. They’re almost full,” he said. “They are taking away resources from people who are suffering heart attacks or are in serious accidents.”
In the last two weeks, the delta variant has infected 2,115 residents while leading to 32 deaths in this county of about 410,000, driving the total case count to 48,776 while bringing the death toll to 1,763, Treviño said.
“You see a doubling over the last three months,” he said, referring to new cases.
During the pandemic’s latest wave, the virus is largely infecting unvaccinated residents 50 and younger.
Now, officials are offering unvaccinated students 12 to 18 $50 to take the vaccine, Treviño said.
“The children are now coming out positive,” he said, adding children were not highly affected when COVID-19 swept the region during the pandemic’s first year.
In Harlingen, city commissioners are set to consider offering similar incentives next week, Mayor Chris Boswell said.
In the last two weeks, the county’s new infusion center has treated 388 patients, Treviño said.
“We know the infusion treatment works,” he said of the therapy which infuses anti-bodies into COVID-19 patients to help them fight the virus.
Treviño urged residents to “wear masks whether mandated or not.”
“We know the vaccine works,” he said. “If you have family members who are not yet vaccinated, please encourage them to do so. You can do your part to make sure you’re vaccinated and your family members are vaccinated.”
From the podium, Esmeralda Guajardo, the county’s health administrator, pleaded with residents to get vaccinated in the county whose vaccination rate stands as one of the state’s highest, warning 98.2 percent of COVID-19 patients who die are unvaccinated.
Meanwhile, the few vaccinated patients who have died were battling underlying medical conditions, she said.
“For those of you who do not believe in the vaccine, you have to ask why. Never before has your vaccination status been based on political beliefs,” she said, as she looked back on her career. “We really need people to understand the vaccine. I beg you, please take advantage of the vaccine.”
At Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, out of 100 COVID-19 patients, five are vaccinated while 35 patients in the intensive care unit are unvaccinated, Stephen Hill, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, told reporters.
“It’s definitely affecting our younger population,” he said. “(Parents are) watching their children die. The mental pieces of seeing people die — for me, it’s hard to take. That’s what’s going on every single day in our hospitals.”
Meanwhile, Manny Vela, the hospital’s chief executive officer, described his staff as “heroes” straining to “meet the demand.”
“I would say we’re near capacity and there are days that we are at capacity,” Vela said during an interview. “We are juggling every member of our staff to continue to meet the demand.”
At the podium, Vela pleaded with residents to get vaccinated.
“Help us help you,” he said. “We’ve been on this journey for 18 months. We have grave concern in caring for our community. The number-one defense against the virus is getting vaccinated.”
Last year, state officials sent National Guard troops to help in area hospitals.
This year, the state’s nurses are trying to help the region’s short-staffed hospitals.
At Valley Baptist, a severe nursing shortage is leading staff to work 50 to 72 hours a week, Hill said.
“It’s tight — it’s very tight,” he said of staffing. “Our staff are tired. They’re exhausted.”
Across the area, residents calling for COVID-19 tests are tying up ambulances, Bill Aston, executive director of the South Texas Emergency Care Foundation, said.
“We’ve experienced a number of calls from patients who want to be tested for COVID — the hospitals are not test sites,” he said. “EMS is tied up at the hospital. Patients are waiting for extension periods of time for an ambulance. If you do not have an emergency, please consult your physician.”
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