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The Houston region set a record Saturday for the number of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care, hospital records show, though the total number of admitted patients declined for the third straight day. In the 25-county region anchored by Harris County, 1,136 COVID patients were in ICU beds, according to the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council database, a 11 percent jump from Friday. The total number hospitalized with the virus fell to 3,727. Health experts and public health officials are pleased by the leveling off of hospitalizations in the past week. The figure remains high, and w...

A fast-rising tide of new coronavirus cases is flooding emergency rooms in parts of the United States, with some patients moved into hallways and nurses working extra shifts to keep up with the surge. Patients struggling to breathe are being placed on ventilators in emergency wards since intensive care units are full, officials say, and the near-constant care they require is overtaxing workers who also are treating more typical ER cases like chest pains, infections, and fractures. In Texas, Dr. Alison Haddock of the Baylor College of Medicine said the current situation is worse than after Hurricane Harvey, which swamped Houston with floodwaters in 2017. The state reported a new daily record for virus deaths Friday and more than 10,000 confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day. ...

After the worst week for new transmissions since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Los Angeles County reported an additional 2,770 positive cases and 37 deaths on Saturday. For the fourth consecutive day, L.A. County saw more than 2,100 people hospitalized for COVID-19, the Department of Public Health said. Of those patients, 18% are on ventilators and 28% are in the intensive care unit. Public health officials said they are particularly concerned that adults younger than 40 are being hospitalized at the highest rate yet during the pandemic. Of the 37 people whose deaths were reported Saturday, 25 were older than 65, officials said. Two of the victims were younger than 40, both with underlying health conditions. Cases have continued to surge unchecked across California, with more than ...

We represent only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to first-year residents -- otherwise known as "interns" -- there are also thousands of other health care workers who will be joining the medical workforce this summer, including nurses, physician assistants, social workers, technicians and other indispensable members of the medical team. Residents are physicians in the sense that we have completed medical school and obtained an M.D. or D.O. degree, but we still have not finished our training in a specific area of medicine, such as surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics or psychiatry. I once had a professor in medical school who compared new residents to stem cells: We start off as undifferentiated doctors and, through a three- to seven-year residency program, evolve into a particular t...

SALEM — Heather Griggs presses a phone to her ear in a makeshift office in the small brick courthouse that once served as a jail in rural Pendleton, a place best known for its annual rodeo. Her assured tone masks her exhaustion when she tells the person on the other end that they may have been exposed to COVID-19. It’s a call she has made thousands of times since March, but lately there has been a heightened sense of urgency. The coronavirus has torn through the small Oregon community where farmers grow crops such as potatoes, onions and grains. In Umatilla County, where Pendleton is located, the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 is about 16%. That's a measure of how widespread the disease is in the community, and the World Health Organization recommends it stay below 5%. In ...