COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas level off just below the pandemic’s winter peak
The numbers have stayed within a few hundred of a grim milestone as the state battles the pandemic’s latest surge. Full Story
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Karen Brooks Harper
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Karen Brooks Harper reported on the state budget and health and human services from 2020 to 2024. An alumna of the Missouri School of Journalism, Karen arrived in Texas in 1995 to join the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, spent several years in Laredo and Mexico covering immigration and the drug war for Knight-Ridder newspapers, and has covered Texas politics for more than two decades for news organizations including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and Reuters.
Past Contributions
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![Nurse practitioner Cheryl Shovan inputs patients’ data in the halls of the COVID-19 care unit at Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant on Aug. 19, 2021. The hospital is short of at least 20 nurses needed to handle the surge of COVID-19 cases in the Titus County area.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
President Joe Biden says Texas’ new abortion law “unleashes unconstitutional chaos”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Supreme Court's decision not to halt the law "an injustice" and Vice President Kamala Harris promised the administration would defend abortion rights. Full Story
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![President Joe Biden addresses the nation following the end of the American mission to Afghanistan on Aug. 31, 2021.]()
Credit: Jessica Koscielniak-USA TODAY via REUTERS -
Verbal and physical attacks on health workers surge as emotions boil during latest COVID-19 wave
Stressed health workers are now confronting volatile visitors and patients. “The verbal abuse, the name-calling, racial slurs … we’ve had broken bones, broken noses,” said one hospital official in Dallas. Full Story
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![Registered Nurse Lori Kelley dons a pair of latex gloves, the last piece of PPE she will put on before entering the room of a COVID-19 patient, at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on Wednesday, August 3, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas' biggest county saw a sixfold jump in vaccine rates after offering $100 for first doses
Other city and county governments in Texas are offering incentives to unvaccinated people to get a shot. Statewide, vaccination rates have increased modestly. Full Story
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![Dave DeJohn, a teacher at Yates High School, gets vaccinated by pharmacist Ilana Druker at Houston Independent School District’s Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center in Houston on Jan. 9, 2021.]()
Credit: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune -
See how many Texas hospital ICUs were filled to capacity during coronavirus surges
After increasing in January due to the COVID-19 omicron variant, the number of hospitals reporting full ICU units declined after falling short of the August peak, which was caused by the delta variant. Full Story
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Desperate Texas doctors turn to antibody treatments to slow down surging COVID-19 hospitalizations
The infusions are more available and accessible to Texans than ever before, and new criteria for who can receive antibody treatment have led more doctors to prescribe it. Full Story
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![Dr. Fritz Thurmond speaks to Kathy Hardman as she waits a one-hour observation period after receiving a COVID-19 antibody infusion at Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant on Aug. 19, 2021.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
Federal judge rules for Texas, temporarily restores federal health care funding extension
The agreement was set to expire next year after federal health officials rescinded the Trump administration's 10-year extension to the 1115 waiver agreement. Full Story
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![Helen Hawkins, Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, at Carousel Pediatrics in Austin on Nov. 8th, 2012.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge for The Texas Tribune -
The new Texas COVID-19 surge could be worse than anything the state has seen yet
“It’s going to be close,” one health official said as a record number of Texas hospitals run out of intensive care beds and warn that they may soon have more COVID-19 patients than they can handle. Full Story
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![The St. Johns drive-through COVID-19 testing site off of Interstate 35 in north Austin on Aug. 5, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas hospitals hit by staffing crisis as burnout depletes workforce and COVID-19 surges
The lack of available nurses has driven up salaries and created a heated, competitive job market as thousands of positions remain open throughout Texas. Full Story
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![A nurse administers an antibody treatment to a COVID-19 patient at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on Aug. 3, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
"On a crash course": Texas hospitals brace for another COVID-19 surge as delta variant burns through unvaccinated communities
Hospital officials worry that "staggering and frightening" hospitalization rates will push facilities to capacity at a time when staffing is short and workers are exhausted. Full Story
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![Joseph Situentes Peña, 13, receives his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic held in partnership between the Central Texas Food Bank and University of Texas in Austin on July 21, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune
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