In states across the nation, officials remain concerned about the number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital and the ability of hospitals to find enough rooms.
California on Wednesday set records in cases, hospitalizations and ICU admissions. The most populous state has only about 1,500 ICU beds available.
Fresno County’s Interim Public Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra reported zero ICU capacity Tuesday.
“Whenever the ICUs get full, it’s really hard to move patients through the emergency department. It’s really hard for us to provide efficient services,” said Vohra, a specialist in emergency medicine.
The state has mandated restrictions for five regions if ICU capacity goes below 15%. The greater Sacramento region reached the threshold Wednesday and a stay-at-home order for 3 million residents will begin late Thursday.
“I know that those who aren’t in the medical field may not understand or quite grasp just how dire the situation is, but all the things you’re hearing about — how impacted our hospitals are, about how dire the situation with our ICUs is — it’s absolutely true. And that really is the reason that we want everyone to stay home as much as possible,” Vohra said.
Oklahoma facilities had just 34 available ICU beds as of late Tuesday.
Other states that reported record hospitalizations Wednesday include North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
In the United States, Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have soared.
The US has averaged 206,152 new cases a day over the past seven days — the country’s highest average in the pandemic so far.
And 106,688 Covid-19 patients were reported in US hospitals Wednesday, also a high for the pandemic, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The country’s average number of daily coronavirus deaths across a week — 2,230 — is close to the highest-ever average of 2,241 recorded on April 24, Johns Hopkins University data show. In total, more than 288,000 people in the US have died of the virus.
More than 15.3 million official Covid-19 cases have been reported, according to data from JHU, though researchers believe the actual number of infections is much higher.
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