Texas towns lack hospital beds to cope with rise in COVID patients

There are only 14 hospital beds and not one intensive care unit bed in Iraan, a town of about 1,300 residents in west Texas.

The only doctors in town are family physicians with emergency room experience. The closest hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients that have ventilators, specialists and ICU beds are more than 80 miles away in Midland, Odessa and San Angelo.

And COVID-19 is taking a toll on the oilfield town and other rural communities in Texas.

In recent weeks, about 50 residents of Iraan tested positive for the novel coronavirus and three of them had to be airlifted out for needed treatment, reported the Texas Tribune. No one in Iraan has died due to COVID-19, and no children have been hospitalized for it.

The town's public school district shut down after only five days of classes because about one-quarter of the school staff of 70, and 16 percent of the 335 students were either infected with or exposed to the coronavirus, according to Superintendent Tracy Canter. The opening of school will be delayed until Aug 30.

Those numbers were more than the district saw for all of last year, she told the Tribune. The high infection rate makes it hard for such a small school district because employees may perform several jobs — teaching during the day and driving the bus when school is over.

Iraan General Hospital CEO Jason Rybolt told CNN that 119 people were tested for the virus, and 50 tested positive during a two-week August span — a 42 percent positivity rate.

"This is very serious," Iraan Mayor Darren Brown told CNN. Added resident Vicky Zapata, "We had had COVID before, but never to this magnitude."

Rybolt said he is "very concerned for the community and "very concerned for trying to make sure that they have the healthcare that they need".

Of those residents who had to be airlifted elsewhere, he said that at least one was taken out of state because of a lack of available ICU beds in Texas. "It could be 12 hours (for coronavirus-stricken people to receive a bed). It could be 36 hours. You just never know how long it's going to take," Rybolt said.

Three other rural districts in Texas also have temporarily closed some or all of their schools due to rising numbers of staffers and students being sick with COVID-19 or in quarantine.

Morgan Mill Independent School District with more than 130 students closed for a few days because half its staff is out with the virus. The Bloomburg Independent School District of more than 200 students and the Waskom Independent School District of more than 800 students in East Texas both closed for at least several days.

All four school districts are in areas where fewer than a third of residents are fully vaccinated, the Tribune reported.

Morgan Mill Superintendent Wendy Sanders said that even though half the school district staff is out sick, many of them don't want to be tested for the coronavirus.

"It was their personal choice to not get tested," Sanders said. "I don't believe in taking away personal freedom of choice and enforcing testing."

Closings of the small districts led the Texas State Teachers Association on Aug 18 to again call for Governor Greg Abbott to rescind his order against mask requirements. The group urged all educators and students in the state to wear masks to campuses, as recommended by healthcare experts.

"Unfortunately, the closure of these small school districts is more proof that the COVID pandemic is still dangerous and needs to be taken seriously by the governor and school officials," the organization said in a statement. "People must get vaccinated, and educators and students need to wear masks to school."

The four small districts will nonetheless follow the governor's order. They won't require masks for students or teachers.