Updated at 12:09 a.m., April 4, 2020: to include interactive tool that shows where in North Texas the beds are located.

AUSTIN — The number of Texas hospital beds available for coronavirus patients has more than doubled in 15 days, Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday.

Though the peak need remains unknown, the state on Thursday had 19,695 available beds, up from 8,155 on March 18, Abbott said.

He attributed the 142% increase to his order that physicians and dentists postpone for three weeks all elective surgeries and procedures not immediately necessary and his rule waiver that allowed hospitals to put two patients in a room.

Increased staffing, assisted by relaxation of licensing requirements on newly trained or retired health care professionals, is another big reason more beds are available, Abbott said.

“We are fully prepared for the hospital needs of Texans as we continue to respond to the coronavirus,” he said at a Capitol news briefing.

“We have the capacity to add even more beds as are needed in regions that may increase in patient need,” Abbott said. “And our capacity should prevent us from facing the type of situation that New York [City] is having to deal with today.”

However, a spokeswoman for the state’s largest hospital trade group said hospitals still lack sufficient personal protective equipment for care staff.

Beds and ventilators

On Thursday, Texas had 2,107 intensive-care unit beds available and 8,741 ventilators, according to data released by Abbott and state hospital-bed czar John Zerwas.

In Trauma Service Area E, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there are 12,399 hospital beds that have been reported to the state since it began seeking data as the virus began to spread in the U.S.

On Thursday, 4,242 – or 33% — of those beds were available.

There were 541 available ICU beds in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Though Abbott and Zerwas did not release the numbers of ventilators per region, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on Thursday tweeted that the city of Dallas has 838 ventilators, 245 of which are in use.

Asked if Texas has enough ventilators and is seeking more from the federal government, Abbott did not directly answer either query.

State health commissioner John Hellerstedt implored Texans to continue to self isolate, avoid close contact with others and wash their hands regularly.

“That can decrease the demand for those ventilators,” he said.

Zerwas, an anesthesiologist and former lawmaker who is chancellor of the University of Texas System’s health sciences centers, said he hopes American ingenuity can produce some simpler ventilators or maximize use of existing ones.

“I think we’re going to be in a good place” on ventilators, Zerwas said.

“We were fortunate that we’re seeing what’s going on elsewhere in the world and in our own country,” he said. “It has given that opportunity … to incorporate those [social distancing and hygiene] practices that are going to blunt the [infected patient count] curve significantly — and with that, hopefully blunt any extraordinary need we’re going to have for ventilation devices.”

On ICU beds, Johnson’s tweet suggested that 304 of Dallas’ 717 such beds are unoccupied. That would not be inconsistent with Abbott’s 541 figure for the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Other regions of the state had a much higher percentage of their beds available than Dallas-Fort Worth — Abilene, 64%; El Paso, 63%; Austin, 53%; and San Antonio, 46%.

Some of the less urbanized regions of the state, though, reported available ICU beds in the low double digits — Abilene, 18; Amarillo, 46; Tyler, 50; El Paso, 55; and Laredo-Rio Grande Valley, 99.

Protective equipment worries

Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Hospital Association, warned of a shortage of masks, gloves, shields and other personal protective equipment.

“Countless elements have to come together to provide patient care, and beds are just one component,” she said in a written statement.

“Infection control is the top priority, as hospitals work around the clock to take care of patients while planning for a surge in the middle of a pandemic,” she said. “We simply don’t have the PPE we need to protect staff.”

State officials have stressed they received 3.8 million face masks from the federal government.

However, concern about equipment shortages continues to be heard among health care providers and first responders.

On testing, Abbott said more than 55,000 Texans have been tested for COVID-19 and of them, 5,478 had tested positive as of Friday. Of those, 15% were hospitalized — or 827, he said. The percentage is one measure of community spread that federal public health officials watch closely.

State emergency management chief Nim Kidd, who has helped coordinate the establishment of drive-through testing centers, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has told him that “Texas is leading the nation in terms of lanes.”

Zerwas said the military is rushing to build pop-up hospitals in San Antonio and Houston.

Abbott marveled at what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was able to do in Dallas this week.

A pop-up hospital at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center, staffed with military medical personnel, is up and running with 250 beds, if they’re needed, he said.

“I was impressed — and really stunned in a way — at how quickly they were able to get that set up,” Abbott said.

Also Friday, Baylor, Scott & White and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, announced a plan to convert a vacant Garland hospital into a facility the Veterans Administration initially would use for care of COVID-19 patients, though it eventually would become a regular VA outpatient clinic.

Austin correspondent James Barragán contributed to this report.