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As COVID-19 numbers climb in Tarrant County, hospitals brace for tough weeks ahead

"One of the tough parts is we don't know when the end is in sight," said Dr. Steven Davis of JPS Hospital.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Inside the walls of JPS Hospital in Fort Worth, doctors and nurses are going on month nine of a constant battle against an invisible enemy.

“It's emotionally taxing,” said Dr. Steven Davis of the coronavirus pandemic. “And I think one of the tough parts is we don't know when the end is in sight.”

Tuesday, Tarrant County’s public health director Vinny Taneja told county commissioners that 92 percent of the county’s ICU beds were full, as COVID-19 cases climb to record levels. Wednesday, the county announced more than 2,100 new cases of the virus.

Davis, who’s the hospital’s chair of internal medicine, said Wednesday they currently have enough beds available, “but we're sort of anxiously waiting what may come in the next couple of weeks.”

RELATED: COVID-19 updates: Tarrant County reports record-high 2,112 new COVID-19 cases

That’s because he says there’s usually a lag between when people get infected and when they end up in the hospital or the ICU.

At Cook Children’s Medical Center, there are currently 20 children hospitalized with COVID, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. That’s the most the hospital’s ever seen at one time since the pandemic started. A few of those children are in the ICU.

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“We do think the number of children who will require hospitalization over the next few weeks or months will very likely go up,” said Dr. Suzanne Whitworth, who directs the hospital’s infectious disease department.

“We have seen perfectly healthy children come into the hospital who have COVID who end up on a ventilator and on life support. That does happen. It's not a high number, but you can't say children are not at risk,” she said. Whitworth said some of the children are still presenting with a Kawasaki disease-like illness.

RELATED: 285 US children hit with serious coronavirus-linked condition

Back at JPS, Davis said he’s very worried about what the coming weeks and months will look like, not just for patients, but for his staff as well.

It’s a battle against a virus with no certain end in sight.

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