delta variant

The change comes after a recent increase in cases and hospitalizations.

Over the past few months, North Texas has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases, mostly due to the more contagious delta variant. As the pandemic intensifies, local researchers have begun to monitor all the new variants and track all the different mutations.

State officials say in just the past week hospitalizations are up 49% due to the highly contagious COVID variant.

Houston Public Media spoke with Avery Taylor, the managing nurse at Houston Methodist’s highly infectious disease unit, about whether the current surge of infections feels different from previous ones.

The guidance came the same week that Cook Children’s reported seeing a spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

The state's chief epidemiologist says the "steepness" of the increase the cases now is similar to what happened during the early months of the pandemic.