Coronavirus & COVID-19

Here’s what to know about the end of emergency health care coverage for low-income Texans.

The city is moving forward, though, because Fort Worth is in desperate need of a better convention center and expanded hotel options downtown, according to Bob Jameson, president and CEO of Visit Fort Worth.

COVID-19 cases were already rising ahead of the holidays, and the trend is continuing into 2023.

Nurses at Children’s Health in North Texas have seen patients through surges of COVID-19, the flu, and now RSV.

As 2022 comes to a close, we’re checking in with North Texans about what their work and their lives have looked like this year.

One week in December saw 514 patients test positive for flu compared to 43 the same week in 2021. Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of infectious diseases, told KERA’s Sam Baker, the increase stems in part from a return to pre-pandemic behavior.

According to Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine, there are seven respiratory viruses infecting people in large numbers this season.

The new Pfizer and Moderna boosters require two to three previous doses of the original vaccine. But Philip Huang, Dallas County's health director, says demand for the original has been low.

COVID-19 cases have been steadily increasing since Thanksgiving, with more than 18,000 new cases this past week. On top of that, doctors are dealing with an influx of RSV and flu patients.

“I think we are just in the beginning of, unfortunately, this crisis … I think things are going to get, unfortunately, a little worse,” says San Antonio-based Dr. Mehmood Khan.

One year after the COVID-19 omicron variant began its spread across Texas, doctors are concerned about the effects of “long COVID” — even as case numbers and hospitalizations have declined.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide deaths increased in 2021 for the first time in two years.