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Houstonians filling hospitals at an alarming rate as COVID-19 continues to spread
A dozen church members test positive for COVID-19 after their pastor died Sunday. Some in the congregation regret not being vaccinated. A West University woman also talks about her vaccine breakthrough case of COVID.
HOUSTON - COVID-19 is continuing to spread sending Houstonians to hospitals at an alarming rate.
ICUs and ER’s across Houston are still very close to capacity. LBJ Hospital’s ICU for instance is 94% full. Ben Taub is at 98% capacity as COVID continues to cause severe illness and deaths. More than 5,600 Houstonians are testing positive for COVID-19 per day, compared to about 3,300 people per day just last week.
Inez Cervantes who’s battling COVID-19. It was Monday when Cervantes and her husband tested positive for COVID-19.
"It’s nothing nice," she says. "It’s bad. The sweats, the tiredness, the bone aches, the not tasting, not smelling, not being able to do nothing."
Their pastor died Sunday from COVID-19, now about a dozen members of the church also have the virus. And his wife was one of the first women to test positive.
"She’s had a heart attack. She has trouble breathing," Mrs. Cervantes explained. "She’s doing real bad too… I just got a text saying for us to pray for her because she was having trouble breathing."
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However, Cervantes is now back at the emergency room with her husband.
"Because he hasn’t broke fever since the day he tested positive on the 9th," she said.
Neither of them were vaccinated. Mrs. Cervantes says she regrets listening to the rumors about the vaccine.
"It’s costing lives, a lot of lives and families are suffering because of this," she explained. "If I wouldn’t have listened to it I would have been vaccinated. I probably wouldn’t be where I am now."
Kris Raiford, on the other hand, recovered From COVID-19. She had a vaccine breakthrough COVID infection and didn’t get nearly as sick.
"I was vaccinated in March of this year and I had the Pfizer Vaccine," Raiford explains."I tested positive on July 21st and there were several rough days. It felt like a very intense flu. I’m a talker and I talk fast and so yeah it was probably every 5 or 6 words I’d have to take a minute and catch my breath. The worst part of the whole experience was my throat. I mean my throat was so sore. I had terrible congestion."
She actually started her business West University Laser in August 2020 during the pandemic and went back to work last week after quarantining for two weeks and kicking COVID-19 but she is still recovering.
"I still don’t have taste or smell. So every day I’m like trying something," Raiford concluded. "Yesterday I had a peppermint and I was like I think I tasted it but I’m still not tasting anything."
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