AUSTIN, Texas (NewsNation Now) — Texas is sending medical staff to overworked hospitals by the thousands, more now than at any point during the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas Department of State Health Services official Lara Anton said that more than 5,400 extra medical personnel have been deployed across Texas. But the number doesn’t capture the waves of extra help surging into Texas, as the military and volunteer outfits have also dispatched extra hands to America’s second-biggest state.

And more doctors and nurses may still be needed as Texas rapidly accelerates toward 8,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients for the first time since a deadly summer outbreak.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations reached an all-time high in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this week, and a dramatic rise in cases has left virus patients waiting for beds across the state.

“We’re in trouble,” said Dr. Ron Cook, the heath authority in Lubbock County, which is averaging more than 450 new cases a day over the past week.

He would not rule out the county of 320,000 residents soon needing mobile morgues like the border city of El Paso, where jail inmates have begun earning $2 an hour to transport bodies amid a skyrocketing number of virus deaths.

“We’re close. The fire department has made some shelving units for us. We’ve gone to extra efforts to try to find more space,” Cook said.

Lubbock hospitals resorted to putting up overflow medical tents to serve short-term patients, NewsNation affiliate KXAN reported. Texas has sent hundreds of additional doctors and nurses to help staff the tents.

On Wednesday, Lubbock’s mayor ordered the closure of large municipal facilities through the end of the year.

Some Texans are calling for tighter restrictions statewide as cases spike, but Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said the state is “not going to have any more lockdowns.”

“Our focal point is going to be working to heal those who have COVID, get them out of hospitals quickly, make sure they get back to their normal lives,” Abbott said in a recent interview with Dallas radio host Mark Davis.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said Abbott will provide hard-hit communities with resources to address spikes in cases, KXAN reported.

Abbott is expected to speak at a news conference in Lubbock Thursday.

Worries about the rising caseloads extended far beyond West Texas.

Leaders in Houston fear they’re repeating the same grim trends as summer that filled hospitals to capacity in the nation’s fourth-largest city. In East Texas, which was spared the worst of earlier surges, more than 400 extra medical staff are on the ground, according to state figures.

Beth Powell, an administrator for the region’s trauma system, said it was the first time in her six years on the job that such help has been sent.

“There are only so many medical personnel to go around. And I think what we’re seeing in places like El Paso is not sustainable for all or a large part of the state,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, a former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He said the numbers suggest the time has come for incremental rollbacks, such as reduced occupancy.

McClellan, who has served as an adviser to Abbott during the pandemic, expressed skepticism that a continued surge of doctors in hard-hit places was effective policy toward the goal of keeping the economy open.

“People won’t go to restaurants, even if they are open. If health care systems do get really stressed, you do have to take further measures. It’s just they have to be more extreme and prolonged,” McClellan said.

Texas has seen more than 20,140 virus deaths to date, the second highest in the county, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by nearly 3,300, an increase of more than 50%.

Anton said Texas has not had issues obtaining staff for deployments.

It can take up to two weeks for more medical personnel to arrive after help is requested, Lubbock officials say, and that staff works 12-hour shifts, six days a week after arriving.

The medical contractors used across Texas are “running short on staff members,” said Joe Moudy, Lubbock County’s emergency management director.

“They’re diligent, hard-working experts,” Cook said of the frontline medical workers in Lubbock. “But they’re tired.”

The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KXAN contributed to this report. Reporting by Paul Weber of the AP, as well as Jennifer Sanders and David Barer of KXAN.