COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in the Valley, even as mass vaccination efforts continue across the counties. 

On Wednesday U.S. Senator John Cornyn spoke to Channel 5 about the concerning amount of hospitalizations and the spike in cases following the Christmas holiday and New Years. Health officials advised against attending large holiday gatherings, but those get-togethers may have caused the recent surge in positive cases. 

"You get fatigued from going through all this," Cornyn said. "As well as the isolation that they're feeling. And I think they let their guard down, and that's part of the problem."

However, Cornyn said the continued arrival of vaccine shipments and mass vaccination efforts across the Valley will help the situation. 

"We're vaccinating a million people a day," Cornyn said via Zoom from an office in Washington. "I know the Biden Administration says they want to raise that number. I'm all for that, but it's complicated. It's complicated when you try to vaccinate 330 million people."

Cornyn said the delivery of the vaccines should improve, just as it did with testing for the virus in the early stages of the pandemic. Cornyn said more focus is needed across the board to set up 'mega vaccination centers.'

"The good news is there are other vaccines that are currently going through clinical trials," Cornyn said. "Including some of them that are a one-shot."

Watch the video for the full story.