Hospitals lack beds and intensive care staff

The Covid outbreak is so severe in Washington state that hospitals are running out of intensive care beds as the delta variant is leading to near record cases, state health officials said on Wednesday.

At least one woman has died while waiting for an intensive care bed, Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director of the emergency department at Harborview Medical Center at Seattle Hospital.

“This patient who was seriously ill, and unfortunately she died in this small hospital after eight hours of testing. We could not find an intensive care bed that could help her survive at that time,” Mitchell said at a press conference. conference with state health authorities.

Another patient had to wait six hours for life-saving surgery, and one patient had to be transferred to an Idaho hospital with a bed, he said.

“Unfortunately for long periods now, we have reached a point where there is actually no intensive care bed capable of accepting these patients in all of our state,” he said. Hospitals are understaffed at all levels, from janitors to clinical staff, he added.

Cases are approaching all-time highs set in December, currently averaging around 3,200 cases per day over the past week, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalizations for Covid, however, have reached an all-time high with 1,460 Covid patients, officials said. Over the past month, 1,100 new Covid patients have been hospitalized, and they’re doubling every 18 or 19 days, state officials said.

All of the state’s hospitals are “stressed, stretched and strained,” Washington Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said. Hospitalizations typically increase a week or two after an increase in cases, but deaths from Covid in the state have remained relatively stable.

The highly transmissible delta variant now accounts for 96% of cases in the state and has driven the number of cases to levels “as high as they have ever been in Washington state,” according to the scientific director by Acting State, Dr Scott Lindquist.

An overwhelming majority, 95%, of Covid hospitalizations in the state from February 1 to August 3 were people who were not fully vaccinated.

Vaccinations across the state have jumped 21% in the past week and a 34% increase in the past two weeks, with the delta variant making headlines, officials said.

“We are seeing a slight increase in vaccinations in all age groups,” said Michele Roberts, acting assistant secretary of the State Department of Health.

Most of the increase in immunization is among the elderly, as parents worry about the delta variant spreading to children when they return to school. About 48% of 12 to 15 year olds in Washington have started the vaccination and 54% of 16 to 17 year olds have also started the vaccination.

“That’s about half of the kids who are eligible in our state… we’d love to see those numbers go up, especially with school going back to school,” Roberts said.

Washington ranks eighth among all states in the proportion of the population fully vaccinated with two doses, around 59.5%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of August 24.

The state has currently vaccinated 71.5% of its population aged 12 and over with at least one dose, according to the state’s health department, but some counties in the state are still lagging behind.

“If we had 70% statewide, in every neighborhood, every county, every region, we’d be in a different place,” Shah said.

Some counties have incredibly high vaccination rates that are well over 90% and other places are in the 30% range, “and that’s what concerns us all,” Shah said.

“Unfortunately, if we don’t get people vaccinated and people don’t do what they can do to help, then guess what, we’re going to continue in this situation,” Shah said. “And I know the majority of Washingtonians don’t want that.”