Gov. Greg Abbott urges Texans to have surgery they need soon, while hospitals not slammed by coronavirus

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday urged Texans to consider having elective surgeries and procedures done this summer.

Doing so will allow the state again to shut off non-emergency medical work to free up hospital beds if coronavirus cases spike later in the year, he explained.

“We want to make sure that people who have cancer concerns or heart concerns or other different types of concerns, they get fully addressed right now,” he said.

Abbott made the comment at a news briefing at Amarillo City Hall, where he had a lengthy, closed-door meeting with area politicians before proclaiming to TV cameras the Panhandle city has "turned the corner” in trying to contain an outbreak of COVID-19.

Speaking of Potter and Randall counties, the governor noted that confirmed new cases of the virus, which soared to 734 on May 16, have fallen dramatically since.

On Sunday, there were 12. On Monday, no new confirmed cases in the two counties, each of which includes Amarillo, were reported.

During the past 10 days, Abbott held back a four-county area centered on Amarillo from further business reopenings and relaxations that he granted on May 18 to all other regions of the state except for El Paso County.

The state has sent National Guard personnel to the Panhandle to help disinfect nursing homes and surge response teams to increase testing and try to isolate people who are positive. The area contains meat-packing plants, senior living centers and jails and prisons, the three categories of “hot spots” for COVID-19, Abbott noted.

On Wednesday, Trauma Service Area A, which includes the upper Panhandle, had 59 coronavirus patients in the hospital, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard. Nearly 500 hospital beds were available, as were 116 ventilators.

“So all the numbers are looking good,” Abbott said.

On Friday, restaurants in the Amarillo area will be able to begin operating at 50% capacity, bars can open at 25% capacity and child care centers, massage parlors, tattoo shops, piercing studios and bowling alleys can reopen. Abbott’s letting Deaf Smith, Moore, Potter and Randall counties join the rest of the state in Phase II of his reopening.

The governor warned, though, that he expects a spike as test results from a JBS USA beef processing plant in Cactus (Moore County) come in later this week.

As he explained, “I do, however, want to provide you one cautionary note. As many of you may know, there has been an extreme addition to the number of tests that have been conducted by the JBS facility nearby.”

Abbott said that recently, there was a “massive increase in the number of tests” conducted at JBS’ Cactus facility.

“Because it is considered to be a hot zone, you can expect in the short run -- meaning later on this week -- that there will be what should be one last spike in the number of people testing positive” as well as “one last spike in the positivity rate,” he said.

That’s to be expected, Abbott said.

“In fact, I would be surprised if we did not see that spike. But what I expect is after that spike, you will continue to see an ongoing, downward trend in those testing positive in this region -- and you will see this region having contained COVID-19,” he said.

Data he’s seen from the area on hospitalization and the percentage of tests that produce positive results make him confident it’s going to be OK, Abbott stressed.

Abbott spoke about elective surgery and procedures as he answered a question about whether the state’s prepared for a second spike in coronavirus cases.

“We are prepared and preparing for second- and third-level expansions of COVID-19,” he said.

Abbott cited the state’s growing experience with hot spots and improving supplies of personal protective equipment for health care workers and tests.

“We're prepared to send in these surge response teams to make sure that we will be able to tamp down any type of flare up using the model of what we've seen in Amarillo,” he said.

Promising a more abundant supply of masks, gowns and face shields, Abbott said, “We should have ongoing supply so that we will not be running out like we were in the original part of this process.” That goes for tests as well, he said.

The last “key part” of the strategy is preserving an adequate supply of hospital beds, ventilators and hospital workers, he said.

“Go back to one of my original orders, which was a requirement that hospitals stop non-essential surgical procedures,” he said. “That could always be triggered, if necessary, to increase hospital capacity. Now it's not needed. As a result, now it's time for people who have those other health care needs to get those addressed.”

As of Wednesday, 57,921 Texans in 230 of the state’s 254 counties have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the state health agency. Of them, 22,055 are active cases, with 1,645 in the hospital.

An estimated 37,626 state residents have recovered from the disease. There were nearly 17,000 available hospital beds, almost 1,900 of them intensive-care beds. Texas had 6,259 ventilators available for use, according to the department.