The order covers facilities in Harris, Dallas, Travis, and Bexar counties and takes effect at 11:59 p.m. Friday.
"These four counties have experienced significant increases in people being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and today's action is a precautionary step to help ensure that the hospitals in these counties continue to have ample supply of available beds to treat COVID-19 patients," Abbott said in a statement.
The order directs hospitals to postpone all surgeries and procedures that are not medically necessary to correct a serious medical condition or save a patient's life.
Earlier this week, Abbott said the state is facing a "massive outbreak" in the coronavirus pandemic and that some new local restrictions may be needed to protect hospital space for new patients.
Abbott, who aggressively pushed to reopen the state in May, acknowledged state officials are closely watching hospital space. One of the first measures Abbott took in March when the pandemic emerged in the state was to order hospitals to suspend nonessential surgeries to help ensure they weren't overwhelmed. That ban was later rescinded.
With new cases and the number of COVID-19 patients rising rapidly, "We are looking at greater restrictions and some could be localized," Abbott said Wednesday without detailing what those would be or where.
"There are some regions in the state of Texas that are running tight on hospital capacity that may necessitate a localized strategy to make sure that hospital beds will be available," he said.
Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S. said Tuesday that it was admitting adult patients across its campuses to free up more hospital bed space in the Houston area. The number of COVID-19-positive hospital patients in Harris County, which encompasses Houston, has nearly tripled since May 31.
Even with the hint of new restrictions to protect hospital space, Abbott said in a separate interview with KDFM-TV in Beaumont that hospital executives have assured him that they will be able to handle the rising numbers of patients.
"If there are more people coming in with COVID-19, they will ensure that beds are available," Abbott said.
The video above is from a previous post.
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