CNN's Miguel Marquez on Monday delivered a sobering report from a Houston hospital that has been flooded with patients infected by the novel coronavirus.
In a dispatch from Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, Marquez talked with medical professionals who say their facility is being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who have come down with the disease.
"The last three weeks, I have seen more admissions and sicker patients than on the previous ten weeks," explained Joseph Varon, the chief medical officer at the United Memorial Medical Center. "So it's been an exponential increase on the severity of illness and in the number of cases we admit."
Tanna Ingraham, an ICU nurse who works at the facility, told Marquez that she recently came down with the disease and warned people that it should be taken very seriously.
"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," she said, before describing the intense pain she's experiencing all over her body.
Another COVID-19 patient at the hospital, who did not wish to be identified by name, told Marquez that she and her husband got infected with the disease even though they stayed at home as much as possible and wore masks whenever they went outside.
"It's a little bit scary," she said. "I wish that people would take it more seriously. They should take it more seriously. You can't -- you can't trust people just because they look healthy, because a lot of people are walking around looking healthy and they're not healthy."
Marquez summed up his experience at the Houston hospital by saying, "It's really, really terrifying here."
Watch the video below.
