COVID-19 hospitals in Hamilton County have repeatedly set new records in the past week – from a one-day spike to 114 Thursday – as the county faces the most severe outbreak of the global pandemic.
People in the hospital with the virus, a key metric for understanding the severity of the outbreak, have moved upward in the county since the beginning of the month and are now higher than they were during early June, which for this month Was the deadliest month. County so far.
Following other single-day growth records in Hamilton County and Tennessee, the hospitalization record has been broken four times this week. However, the total number of hospitalizations now includes the virus as well as hospitalized people awaiting test results for suspected infections – a change in reporting previously in the epidemic, when hospital data showed ” Patients “separated” under invitation. With confirmation of COVID-19.
County-released daily hospital capacity data Friday showed five available intensive care unit beds in Hamilton County’s three major health systems – Erlanger, CHI Memorial, and Parkridge, of which the lowest available ICU beds were reported as the county reported These numbers started issuing in April.
However, this number alone can be misleading because it represents the number of available beds that are currently staffed and not the actual number of beds, said Lisa McCluskey, vice president of marketing and communications for CHI Memorial Hospital. He said that nurses would call if needed.
Officials at three hospitals say the recent spike increase in patients with COVID-19 is not enough to activate the plan or use the proposed Alstom site for overflow capacity, although discussions among county leaders begin has occurred.
“At the beginning of the epidemic, Parkridge Health created a plan for how we would suspect patients with COVID-19 coming or being.” “This plan allows us to expand capacity at Parkeries Health Hospitals in the event of an increasing number of patients with the disease. We are yet to activate our growth plan, but we are ready and carefully monitoring the situation Huh.”
Officials at CHI Memorial and Erlanger Health System echoed similar sentiments.
On Friday, the City of Chatanogo announced it would assist the Hamilton County Health Department in issuing citations for violations of the countywide mask-in-public directive.
During a news conference on Friday, Chatanogo Mayor Andy Burke said that citizens should be the last resort. He said spikes in recent cases of deaths and hospitalization have been reported.
“It’s devastating for us,” Burke said. “We need those numbers to decline. We must take the necessary steps.”
The Health Department on Friday announced a new death – a white male between 51 and 60 years old – bringing the county to a total of 40.
The department also reported 104 new infections on Thursday, bringing the county total to 4,043. Hamilton County averages 113 new cases a day in the past week, the highest average the county has experienced since the epidemic began. On Friday, there were 12 people receiving ICU care.
Contact Elizabeth Fight at [email protected]
Contact Vice Massey at [email protected] or 423-757-6249. Follow her on twitter @ news4mass.
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