Texas health care system has been utterly overwhelmed by people suffering from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, reports AFP. So rural health facilities are being forced to keep patients they are not equipped to care for.

In this wealthy state, 14,700 people were hospitalised as of September 1, just below a record set in January as a winter Covid wave wreaked havoc across America.

“We get a few calls every day from rural hospital leaders that are just frantically trying to find a place to send these patients,” said John Henderson, president of the Texas Organisation of Rural and Community Hospitals. “I would say every day this week we've had a situation that didn't end well and resulted in a patient's death."