Since the start of 2020, the Austin Police Department has made incident reports for more than 60 alleged assaults on healthcare workers and support staff at hospitals across the city.
Throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 has taken over hospitals across Texas – pushing them to capacity and exhausting frontline workers. Dr. Serena Bumpus, a registered nurse and the practice director for the Texas Nurses Association, says violent assaults have always been an issue inside medical facilities but have been made worse during the pandemic.