New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to increase over the June 27-28 weekend in Harris County.
As of June 28, 1,544 of the 1,622 operational intensive care unit beds were occupied in Harris County, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council. A total of 582 of those beds, or 37.7%, were occupied by COVID-19 patients, up from 520 on June 27.
The Texas Medical Center released new information on ICU surge capacity over the weekend based on internal data collected from CHI St. Luke's Medical Center, Houston Methodist Hospital System, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Herman Health Systems, Texas Children's Hospital and the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Based on that data, which officials said is updated on a minute-by-minute basis, approximately 877 ICU beds exist in surge capacity that can be activated in two phases. Bed occupancy growth projections show the TMC may need to start using its first set of 373 surge capacity beds around July 1. However, those beds are not projected to reach capacity within the next two weeks. The next phase of surge capacity includes another 504 temporary ICU beds, which can be further expanded by converting non-ICU beds.
