Why was Texas unable to stop a second COVID surge months in the making?
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Memorial Hermann Hospital RN Jacqueline Uwanda prepares to enter a COVID patient s room inside a 38-bed ICU treating mostly COVID patients, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, in Houston s Texas Medical Center.Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
2of5A Bar Open sign lights the way to a bar along Main Street on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in downtown Houston.Mark Mulligan/Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
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People hangout at a patio of a bar on Holman Street Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Houston.Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) Houston Methodist was set to get 5,850 doses of its 13,650 total dose allotment on Tuesday. Once the vaccine arrived, the hospital began vaccinating employees. You can feel the sense of excitement in the room as these brave men and women, who have been caring for COVID-19 all year long, have been the first at Houston Methodist to receive the vaccine [Tuesday]. It s even been described as today, as Christmas morning, said Dr. Marc Boom, President and CEO of Houston Methodist.
After ten months of battling the virus, Tuesday was a huge relief for frontline workers. It s been a terrible year for all of us, I would say both on the healthcare side and the non-healthcare side. But I think this is really a turning point for us in this pandemic, so I was very much looking forward to it, said Houston Methodist s Dr. Nestor Esnaola.