ODESSA, Texas — Covid-19 cases have been increasing across the Permian Basin, and the local hospitals are seeing the impacts.
Amanda Everett, the Emergency Management Coordinator at Medical Center Hospital, tells NewsWest 9 the staff and nurses are starting to feel overwhelmed, tired and scared.
"With the increasing numbers, we are starting to feel the strains again," said Everett. "We are going to need more nurses, we need more IV pumps, we need more vents. We asking the state for assistance again."
Leaders at MCH say the state of Texas is offering resources like PPE and ventilators, but one thing that is not being provided at the moment is people.
"We were told that we were not going to be helped with staffing right now," Everett said. "Personally I have not gotten an answer as to if they are going to at all or if the answer is no across the board so we are trying to work through some things internally."
Everett tells NewsWest 9 the surge has made hospital officials relocate resources within the system. She states the hospital needs to keep staff and rooms for non-COVID patients to still be able to serve the community.
MCH says they recommend for people to go and get vaccinated anywhere they can.
"If you think about your loved ones laying in a hospital bed by themselves, make that be your encouragement to go get a vaccine," said Everett. "Just spend that 30 minutes out of your day to make sure your family is taken care of."