COVID-19 hospitalizations in Hamilton County repeatedly hit new records last week, including a one-day increase through Thursday, 114, as the county continues to face the most serious outbreak of the global pandemic thus far. .
People in the hospital with the virus, a key metric for understanding the severity of the outbreak, have been on an upward trend in the county since the beginning of the month and are now higher than during early June, which was the deadliest month for the County so far.
The record for hospitalizations has been broken four times this week, following other single-day rise records in Hamilton County and Tennessee. However, the total number of hospitalizations includes people now being treated for the virus, as well as people in the hospital awaiting test results on suspicion of infection, a change from the previous report on the pandemic. , when the hospital data separated “invited patients” from those with confirmed COVID-19.
The daily hospital capacity data released by the county on Friday showed five beds available in intensive care units in the three main health systems of Hamilton County: Erlanger, CHI Memorial and Parkridge, the lowest number of beds available in the ICU. since the county began releasing those numbers in April.
However, that number can only be misleading because it represents the number of available beds currently staffed and not the actual number of beds, said Lisa McCluskey, vice president of marketing and communications at CHI Memorial Hospital. Nurses are on call if a greater need arises, he said.
Officials at all three hospitals say the recent increase in COVID-19 patients is not enough to trigger surge plans or to use the proposed Alstom site for overflow capacity, although discussions have begun between county leaders .
“At the start of the pandemic, Parkridge Health developed an augmentation plan for how we would classify, admit and treat an influx of patients suspected of having or diagnosed with COVID-19,” said Michael Ferguson, spokesman for the Parkridge Health System, in a email. “This plan allows us to significantly expand capacity in all Parkridge Health hospitals in the event of more patients with the disease. We have not yet had to activate our surge plan, but we are still prepared and we are carefully monitoring the situation.”
Officials from CHI Memorial and Erlanger Health System echoed similar sentiments.
On Friday, the city of Chattanooga announced that it will assist the Hamilton County Health Department in issuing citations for violations of the county’s public mask directive.
Dating should be a last resort, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said during a press conference on Friday. Recent spikes in cases, deaths and hospitalizations have been troubling, he said.
“This is devastating for us,” said Berke. “We need those numbers to decrease. We have to take the necessary steps.”
The health department announced a new death Friday, a white male between the ages of 51 and 60, bringing the county’s total to 40.
The department also reported 104 new infections Thursday, bringing the county’s total to 4,043. Hamilton County averages 113 new cases per day in the past week, the highest average the county has experienced since the pandemic began. On Friday, 12 people received care in the ICU.
Contact Elizabeth Fite at [email protected].
Contact Wyatt Massey at [email protected] or 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @ news4mass.
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