Frontline medical workers are reporting a new wave of stress due to the upsurge in COVID-19 cases.

The emergency room at Hunt Regional Medical Center in Commerce was scheduled to close at midnight until the end of August due to what authorities have called a public health crisis.

Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth is reporting a substantial increase in COVID-19 cases, almost as high as the January peak.

In Children’s Medical Centers in Dallas and Plano, COVID-19 isolation wards closed this spring.

But just like the Parkland Hospital in Dallas which reinstalled the red doors, Children’s again has COVID-19 isolation rooms.

Dr Carla Garcia Carreno is Head of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Medical Centers.

“We are seeing serious cases, quite serious cases of children, who should have been able to be vaccinated. And they are not vaccinated, ”she said.

Carreno said frontline workers are frustrated that some families still refuse vaccination, which stops or at least reduces the severity of the virus.

“We definitely have a good tool to use and I would like us to be able to address concerns so people get vaccinated,” Dr Carreno said. “We have the numbers. And it was a very well created vaccine. It’s certain. And it is an effective tool.

Dr Nick Karr said his five Sinai emergency care clinics in North Texas were seeing the same increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, most of them unvaccinated.

He’s working on hiring more people to help respond to the wave.

“We’re all stressed out, aren’t we? We want to be done with this, and I think we all thought, we’re starting to get there, ”Dr Karr said.

Taking care of its employees is part of the challenge of this new COVID-19 treatment cycle.

“It’s difficult because we’ve been dealing with it day in and day out in our work for the last 18 months or so,” he said.

The Sinai clinics are open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Karr said they are an option for patients who show symptoms of COVID-19 and want a test when regular doctor’s offices are closed.

It also offers an option to the extremely crowded conditions of hospital emergency rooms.

“We think we’re playing a pretty critical role in this regard,” said Dr Karr. “Having that low threshold to come in and seek treatment when you think you have it is one of the ways to prevent further spread.” Dr Karr said.

Providers hope their efforts and more immunization will help stop the rise in the number of critically ill patients.