ODESSA, Texas — Medical professionals in the Permian Basin are feeling worried about going into this week after Thanksgiving.
"The hospital is worried about what would come out of the Thanksgiving holiday because before the thanksgiving holiday we were already pretty full and that's not just our hospital, that's all hospitals in our area," Dr. Rohith Saravannan said.
In addition to these already overflowing hospitals, more worry stems from an upward trend of COVID cases following holiday breaks.
"If the Thanksgiving holiday brings what many of the other holidays have, which is a spike, more of a spike than already exists, then it would be hard for the hospitals to keep up," Saravannan said.
Dr. Saravannan said this isn't just a space issue.
Depending on the case numbers we see, this could be a staff and equipment issue as well.
"FEMA has a warehouse of this kind of equipment and so FEMA sends the tent, FEMA sends the equipment and then hopefully FEMA will send some staff, the state will send some staff," Saravannan said.
If worse comes to worst, ORMC could be getting ready to send patients to hospitals across Texas, like in Dallas or Lubbock.
They're hoping it doesn't come to that.
"Hold on to these precautions for just a little while longer so that our healthcare system can keep up and take care of the needs of the community," Saravannan said.