Health Care
In Rural Counties, COVID-19 Cases are Likely Undercounted. Greg Abbott Wants to Reopen them Anyway.
More than 100 Texas counties—many with limited medical resources—will be able to reopen businesses to 50 percent capacity on Friday.
In Red River County, a community of about 12,000 in far northeast Texas, the first confirmed COVID-19 case didn’t come until mid-April, despite the ballooning...Read More
Demand for Plasma Therapy for the Sickest COVID-19 Patients Far Outpaces Donations
Texas blood banks and the Red Cross are actively recruiting donors but remain thwarted by a lack of antibody tests.
A few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration dropped a huge project in the lap of the American Red Cross: Help sign up enough people to donate plasma rich ...Read More
Dozens of COVID-19 Cases Have Been Reported in Rural Texas Counties With No Hospitals and No Licensed Physicians
So far, more than 100 cases have been reported in counties with only one—or no—licensed physician.
The first reported COVID-19 death in Texas arrived unexpectedly in a rural hospital with just six beds in its tiny ICU. Eddie Roberts, a 97-year-old funeral hom...Read More
Mapping the Number of COVID-19 Cases in Texas per Doctor
Many counties with limited medical resources—including no primary care physicians—now have COVID-19 cases.
Only a month after the first COVID-19 death occurred in rural Matagorda County, reported cases had already spread to 198 counties as of April 21. And cases are ...Read More
COVID-19 Cases Now Tied to Meat Plants in Rural Texas Counties Wracked with Coronavirus
The outbreaks, which are being investigated by the state health agency, represent the first reported cases of the virus inside Texas meatpacking plants, and are in rural areas where medical resources are already stretched thin.
A meatpacking plant in Deep East Texas appears to be connected to an outbreak of COVID-19 in a rural part of the state where the number of coronavirus cases has...Read More
Houston Is Ground Zero for a Potentially Lifesaving COVID-19 Treatment
A plasma treatment trial is now rolling out nationwide, but a lack of tests remains a roadblock.
Houston attorney Troy Chandler is a big guy—6-foot-2 and 250 pounds—but on March 12 he felt as though he’d been hit by a truck. The first time he went to ...Read More
From Jail to the Streets: One Texan’s Story During COVID-19
The homeless are 11 times more likely to be incarcerated than the rest of the population.
With the novel coronavirus upending society, Rachel Schuyler felt like a sitting duck. At the Bexar County lockup in downtown San Antonio, she lacked supplies l...Read More
What One Texan Had to do to Get an Abortion During the Pandemic
Republican-controlled Texas is using the COVID-19 pandemic as the latest strategy in their anti-abortion playbook, and it’s affecting people’s lives.
Alison’s anxiety over her upcoming abortion kept pace with the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus. The Central Texas resident had decided to terminate her pr...Read More
‘I Think I’m Gonna Die’: Coronavirus Compounds Risk for Dialysis Patients in the Rio Grande Valley
In the Valley, about one in three people have diabetes. They’re at higher risk for COVID-19, but those who rely on dialysis can’t stay home.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, Carmen Zuniga leaves her house in McAllen before dawn to go to the dialysis center about four miles away. Zuniga h...Read More
