Austin hospitals have plenty of supply to meet the COVID-19 demand, at least for now

The Travis County dashboard reported 91 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across the 5-county Austin-Round Rock area on Sunday evening. Of those patients, 39 are in intensive care units and 20 are on ventilators.

How does this stack up against our local hospital capacity?

Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said last month that the metro has about 755 ventilators. Local hospital bed capacity is around 4,300, not including additional beds made available at the city's three protective lodging facilities, which allow people without homes and others to isolate safely.

According to the Texas 2036 COVID-19 dashboard, 40% of hospital beds in the 11-county Capital Area trauma service area were available as of Saturday. It also reported 75 COVID-related visits to area emergency rooms. Overall, ER visits are down.

Though Austin is well below capacity right now, as Texas reopens its economy, local officials continue to warn of a second surge in COVID-19 cases that could overwhelm local hospitals.