After two months of being considered a region with a high rate of COVID-19 patients, Lubbock hospitals are starting to see some relief. 

Staffed hospital beds have been in short supply this month. Lubbock’s two hospital systems reported no available beds the first two weeks of December. The worst day was Dec. 11, when 22 patients were in need of a hospital bed, according to city data. 

The situation has improved since Dec. 14. The most recent report shows 14 available beds.

This week's Music Crossroads of Texas is for the lovesick and heartbroken alike, as host Curtis Peoples presents the second of two shows focusing on songs of love. 

On this episode of Noche de Tango, host Charles Olivier explores the role and evolution of the double bass in the tango orchestra. 

En este episodio de Noche de Tango, el presentador Charles Olivier explora el papel y la evolución del contrabajo en la orquesta de tango.

With limited hospital capacity around Texas, rural hospitals have had to convert entire wings of their facilities into makeshift COVID wards with limited equipment. Thanks to a team from Texas Tech, and a special air scrubbing device, one rural hospital can now safely house COVID patients.

Outside of Collingsworth General Hospital, engineering students and professors spend the morning fitting air ducts to windows along the side sectioned off for COVID patients. The task gets trickier when they reach the third window.
 

Lubbock received nearly 5,000 doses of the first emergency-authorized Pfizer coronavirus vaccine this week. 

Pulmonologist Dr. Brian Williams was one of the first in line at Covenant Medical Center. 

“I’ve avoided COVID for the last nine months despite taking care of COVID patients every day, taking care of thousands of people,” Williams said. “So the fact that I can get the vaccine is quite amazing.” 

Travel Writer Mary Walker Clark’s new book “Landing in My Present: A Father, a Daughter, and the Singular Himalayan Journey that Reunited Them” chronicles her journey of connecting with her father decades after he died.

Like many men of his generation, Second Lt. Charles Walker, a U.S. Army Air Forces World War II veteran, did not share much about his time at war. He died when Clark was a teenager growing up in Plainview.

A nurse at Covenant Medical Center was the first person in Lubbock to receive the emergency-authorized coronavirus vaccine Tuesday.

Noe Melendez works in the cardiac intensive care unit at the hospital. He said he had no reservations about getting the Pfizer vaccine and hopes more vulnerable people will be able to get it soon. 

“I see people get really sick. I see the sickest of the sick,” he said. “If we can help curb that, that would be amazing for everybody.”

Melendez said the process was easy.

On a late November afternoon, masked mourners fill Second Baptist Church in Levelland.

“Let’s be honest, none of us want to be here right now. We can think of 1,000 other places we’d rather be. But that’s not our reality.”

Minister Coby Colley addresses the friends and family of Stephanie Smith at her funeral. In the church she grew up in, they’re saying their final goodbyes.

Do you consider yourself a Romantique? No? That's ok this edition of MCOT is for you too. On this episode of Music Crossroads of Texas, Curtis Peoples presents the first of two shows focusing on songs of love.