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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Florida hospitals hit by COVID-19 patients suspend elective surgeries and put beds in conference rooms, auditorium and cafeteria. In Georgia, medical centers are turning people away for lack of space. And in Louisiana, patients wait and wait a little longer in the emergency room before being helicoptered elsewhere.
“We are seeing an unprecedented increase in the number of patients arriving,” said Dr. Marc Napp, chief medical officer of Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida on Wednesday. “It’s the absolute number that happens at the same time. There are only so many beds, so many doctors, so many nurses. “
Coronavirus hospitalizations are on the rise again as the most contagious Delta variant rages across the country, forcing medical centers to return to a crisis situation just weeks after many shut down their COVID-19 departments and hospitals in campaign and abandoned other emergency measures.
The number of people currently hospitalized in the United States with the virus has more than tripled over the past month, from an average of around 12,000 to nearly 43,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In North Carolina, more than 1,650 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, the highest total since mid-February. The number jumped 44% in one week and is more than four times the number of patients since early July.
A quarter of North Carolina’s patients, 407, are in intensive care, an increase of 290% from a month ago.
The figures are still far from the nearly 124,000 in hospitals across the country at the height of the winter wave in January. But health experts say this wave may be of more concern because it has grown faster than previous ones. In addition, a worrying proportion of patients this time around are young adults.
“We are seeing a rapid increase this week in cases of people with moderate and severe COVID-19 disease,” said Dr Shannon Carson, pulmonologist with A C Health. “This push is a different ball game from the previous ones.”
Chapel Hill UNC Medical Center did not have intensive care beds available on Thursday, Carson said.
To the frustration of public health experts and frontline healthcare workers, the vast majority of people currently hospitalized are not vaccinated.
“I would say 95% of our critically ill patients with COVID are unvaccinated,” said Dr David Kirk, deputy chief medical officer of WakeMed in Raleigh. “It’s incredibly sad for our staff. It’s a sadness that people are coming in, and it’s preventable.”
Kirk said WakeMed was about three-quarters full from last winter’s outbreak of COVID-19 patients, but noted that could change quickly.
“It doesn’t let go. We are seeing more and more patients arriving every day, ”he said. “This increase is accelerating faster than the previous one.
Florida, Georgia and Louisiana alone account for nearly 40% of all hospitalizations in the country. Louisiana and Georgia have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with around 38% of their populations fully vaccinated. Florida is closer to the national rate, at 49%, while North Carolina is at 47%. By comparison, most New England states are well over 60%.
The Delta variant of the virus sent new infections to the United States, averaging 94,000 per day, a level not seen since mid-February. North Carolina reported 4,331 new cases on Thursday, pushing its daily average over the past week to 3,000 for the first time in nearly six months.
The number of deaths per day has climbed 75% nationwide in the past two weeks, from an average of 244 to 426. North Carolina’s daily average reaches 15 after recording more than 20 deaths twice last week. The total death toll in the United States stands at more than 614,000.
This increase is straining the physical and human resources of hospitals.
“I worry about this kind of PTSD-Like syndrome, we’ll find a way to get over it, we’ll find a way to take care of these patients, ”Kirk said.very time we do it, it costs a lot to our wonderful heroes who take care of all these patients. “
“Some staff members were exhausted from the stress of dealing with such a serious illness and the overtime and overtime shifts,” UNC Health’s Carson said, noting that some hospitals did not have enough staff to manage the growing volume of patients.
Across Florida, more than 12,000 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, and nearly 2,500 of them were in intensive care unit beds. The state averages nearly 18,000 new cases per day, compared to less than 2,000 in the first week of July. In total, Florida has recorded more than 39,100 coronavirus deaths.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has strongly opposed mask rules and other mandatory measures, saying it’s important to keep Florida’s economy moving.
“Florida is a free state, and we will empower our people. We will not allow Joe Biden and his bureaucratic minions to come in and requisition the rights and freedoms of Floridians, ”said DeSantis, who explored a possible presidency in 2024, said Wednesday in a collection email. funds.
The setback for some hospitals has been brutal.
In central Florida, AdventHealth hospitals had 1,350 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, the most ever. The health system has postponed elective surgery and limited visitors to focusing on treating coronavirus patients.
Less than two months ago, Miami’s Baptist Hospital had fewer than 20 COVID-19 patients and was closing coronavirus units. Hospital officials reopened some of these units on Monday to handle an influx of more than 200 new patients infected with the virus.
“As we open units, they fill up with COVID patients,” said Dr Sergio Segarra, the hospital’s chief medical officer.
In Georgia, more than two dozen hospitals this week said they had to turn away patients as the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 rose to 2,600 statewide.
And in Louisiana, small hospitals are struggling to find larger, better-equipped ones to accommodate their most seriously ill patients.
Lee Chastant, CEO of West Feliciana Hospital in the state’s rural southeast, said a COVID-19 patient was in the emergency room about two days until staff could finally transfer the person to the hospital. New Orleans.
The rapid turn of events was disheartening for healthcare workers who just weeks ago believed the battle was in its final stages. The crisis is also making it more difficult for hospitals to provide other types of essential medical care.
“If you don’t get the vaccine, you are taking resources from people who have illnesses or injuries or illnesses,” said Dr. Vincent Shaw, a family doctor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. COVID does not call people who have had a stroke, who have had heart attacks, who have been through other horrible or traumatic things and who say, ‘You are all taking a week off. I will take care of them. emergencies and intensive care.
In Florida, Judi Custer said she and her husband had done everything they were told to do to keep the virus away. Fort Lauderdale retirees were vaccinated and wore masks, even when the rules were lifted. Still, they fell ill with COVID-19 a few weeks ago, and Doug Custer, 80, was hospitalized for five days.
Judy Custer said she still believes more people need to be vaccinated.
“We’ve had it long enough to know it helps people, even if they get sick from it,” she said. “You are less likely to be put on a ventilator. You are less likely to be hospitalized.
Kirk of WakeMed said he has seen many COVID-19 patients begging for the vaccine, even though it is too late at this point.
“They see then that the vaccine is what we said it is,” he said. “I wish I could have people in there when someone takes my hand and has that realization because, if they saw that, with our patients so sick, there would be a lot more people to go to. get vaccinated. “
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Marcelo reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Frieda Frisaro in Miami contributed to this story.
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