AUSTIN, Texas — The number of COVID-19 related hospitalizations continues to rise across the state, and it has implications for hospitals outside of major Texas cities.

Even before the pandemic, many hospitals in rural areas faced huge financial problems.

John Henderson is the president and CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. In an interview with Capital Tonight, he explained that the longer the pandemic continues, the harder it will be for smaller hospitals to recover.

“Most of the rural hospital CEOs I've visited with say that even if we slowly returned to normal, they're okay through July or August. But if we have a second wave, or we have to shut things back down, and we get into the fall, that they'll have the challenges that they had in March today.”

Click the link above to watch the full interview with John Henderson.