BEAUMONT, Texas — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the region and hospitals fill up fast, Southeast Texas doctors are urging the community to get vaccinated.
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick will hold a press conference Thursday morning at the Jefferson County Courthouse to address the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for mask wearing and vaccinations.
Southeast Texas doctors are seeing a surge in COVID patients at local hospitals, and they believe the numbers are worse than what they were earlier this year.
“We’re seeing a huge uptick that I suspect will continue,” Jeff Thompson, Baptist Hospital doctor, said. “We got kids going back to school soon. There's decisions back and forth on masking or not masking.’
Hospitals are seeing people of all ages suffering from COVID-related symptoms
Although local hospitals are not able to test for the variant to give a definitive answer, officials believe most of the cases are connected with the delta variant, Thompson said.
“We are seeing unprecedented numbers,” he said. “We're holding patients. Our beds not only are full or reaching capacity, we're holding patients down at the emergency center.”
Baptist Hospital has admitted more than 60 COVID-19 patients this week, and only one person out of that group was vaccinated.
“I know there's a lot of people politicizing it for whatever reason. I get it,” Thompson said. “But at the end of the day, it's your life.”
With low vaccination rates across the region and school starting soon, Thompson fears that concerning COVID-19 and the delta variant, things could go from bad to worse.
“As soon as we get people back from the summer back into closed rooms, we're going to see an acceleration on top of that as well,” he said.
The only options for lowering the surge rate are for people to get vaccinated or stay home, and Thompson hopes the Southeast Texas community will choose the ladder.
Members of the Southeast Texas community went to the Texas Art Museum in Port Arthur Wednesday to receive their first dose of the vaccine.
Community members said they felt compelled to get the shot to after learning about the delta variant and to keep each other safe.
“I take that shot because I'm thinking for everybody around me, my family, my friends, my coworkers, and you see, everybody in the world right now" Jay Nong, Southeast Texas community member, said. "You see everybody in the world right now. It's getting crazy about COVID."
Like Thompson, Nong urges those who have not gotten a vaccinated to do so.
“Take the COVID vaccine,” Nong siad. “That is all I want to say. So you protect yourself and protect everybody.”
Officials said that this new surge could continue to persist unless people take action and get vaccinated.