Hospitals in parts of the US are already starting to see the effects of the autumn wave of Covid-19 infections, the latest sign that the health care system is still facing severe pressure from the virus, even as the that even in places where relatively high vaccination rates have been received.
Intensive care beds occupied by Covid-19 patients have been climbing in 12 states from two weeks ago, most of them in a contiguous strip running from Arizona and New Mexico to the Great Plains and Minnesota. In many western states, many doctors and nurses have not held their breath since the last stages of infection.
“We’re working at full capacity and couldn’t move patients until a few days ago,” said Jennifer Riley, vice president for operations at Memorial Hospital in Craig, a rural facility in remote Moffat County in western Colorado with an approx. 25 beds. “It’s hard to believe we’re in the pandemic so far.”
The US is facing several uncertain months, with the highly contagious Delta variant still circulating in the country in its traditional winter virus season. Many parts of the US are also experiencing unseasonably warm autumns, and in many regions it is yet to be seen what will happen when cooler temperatures push people indoors, where viruses spread more easily.
Widespread distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has shown remarkable success in keeping inoculated people alive and out of hospitals. But it is still unclear to what extent vaccination will reduce the continued burden on the health care system. A new therapy like a pill developed by Pfizer Inc. is bound to help, but that treatment won’t be widely available for at least a few months.
In western states such as Colorado, hospital workers are under siege and exhausted. Many regional COVID-19 waves rise and fall rapidly, but in many states in the West, regions appear to be caught between heat and autumn waves, and the pressure on hospitals continues to grow more or less.
Colorado on Tuesday activated its “crisis standards of care” hospital staffing plan, giving industry broad authority to fill personnel gaps. Staffing plans allow things like “just in time” training for employees to handle responsibilities beyond their normal role and level of certification. According to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also sent medical teams to help.
Riley’s Rural Hospital has had to transfer many COVID-19 patients – and those with other serious illnesses and injuries – by helicopter to Grand Junction, Colorado, 150 miles (241 kilometers) away and Denver 198 miles away.
The resurgence is a warning to states elsewhere in the country.
“It’s hitting Colorado now,” said Donna Vehe, communications director at San Luis Valley Health, which operates a 9,000-bed hospital in Alamosa, in southern Colorado. “But where is it going to hit in 45 days? ,
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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