FORT WORTH, Texas — The number of MedStar patients showing COVID-19 symptoms in Tarrant County has nearly doubled since June, the Fort Worth-based ambulance provider said in a release Tuesday.
MedStar is identifying, on average, 92.3 patients per day with COVID-19 symptoms, up from 64.3 earlier in July and up from 49.4 in June.
The increase from June is 87%. MedStar provides ambulance service to Fort Worth and 14 other cities in Tarrant County.
The rise in MedStar screenings comes as Tarrant County hospitalizations and positivity rates continue to jump: 9.98% of Tarrant County hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients, up from 1.80% in June, and the county's seven-day average positivity rate has jumped to 20.88%, up from 2.57% earlier this summer.
MedStar is hosting a public vaccine clinic Friday at its headquarters at 2900 Alta Mere Drive in Fort Worth. Anyone interested in getting a vaccine can register for the clinic here.
The latest data projections from UT Southwestern predicted 2,000 hospitalizations in Tarrant County by Aug. 19. Tarrant County's winter peak, before vaccinations were widely available, was just over 1,500 hospitalizations.
The rise of the Delta variant has led to a surge across of COVID-19 cases across Texas.
RELATED: Texas officials deny hospitals' requests for hundreds of emergency staff to help with COVID surge
In Dallas County, UT Southwestern researchers are projecting 1,000-1,500 hospitalizations by Aug. 19. Dallas County's winter peak was around 1,200 hospitalizations.
For the North Texas region, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have increased 40% in the last week, 102% over the last two weeks and 292% in the last month, according to UT Southwestern data.
And in both Dallas and Tarrant counties, the fastest growth rate for hospitalizations is among those ages 18-49.
"The increasing number of new cases of COVID-19 and subsequent hospitalizations also reflects the large numbers of individuals who are not yet vaccinated and therefore particularly susceptible to infection," the UT Southwestern report said.