A sign leading to the emergency room at Dixie Regional Medical Center on February 13, 2020 in St. George, Utah. | Photo by Chris Reed
Salt Lake City (AP) – One of Utah’s largest hospitals has no beds left in its routine intensive care unit, as the governor has announced a week-long increase in cases of coronavirus in the state. Meanwhile, while Dickey Regional Medical Center still hadn’t had to activate its booming ICU, Siorney Utah is on a one-day hit high for a new infection with 92 additional people with Covid-19 infection for the second time this week.
Led by St. George’s, which found 53 people to be the newest infected in the state on Saturday in cities with less than 100,000 people, according to Utah’s health department.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Russell Winnick said Unit University had to arrange extra ICU beds this week by doctors and nurses working overtime to care for its critically ill patients, said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Said Russell Winnie.
“We’ve cut where we can, but it’s uncertain,” he said. “We are very concerned about the flu season, especially if people are not vaccinated. We can’t take another hit. ”
The number of South Utah residents hospitalized with the virus came down on Saturday, according to the report Southwest Utah Public Health Department. However, in the last few days, Dixie Regional Medical Center, which also handles COVID-19 patients beyond Southern Utah, has more coronavirus patients overall than the number of ICU beds in the facility.
However, Dixie Regional Spokesperson Terry Draper said the hospital has not yet activated its intensive care unit which will expand the available intensive care beds from 32 to 89.
“No, we have not increased our ICU. But statewide health care resources are under stress at the moment due to the significantly increasing COVID-19 cases and subsequent hospital admissions, which is increasing the proportion of high patients in our ICU. “It’s important to remember that we continue to care for many non-covid patients who also need a high level of ICU care.”
Derper said doctors, nurses and other caregivers at the hospital need community help.
“Again, we tell the community to stay with us, to run, to mask up, to raise social distance properly, to wash our hands frequently and to stay at home if we are sick.” “Our parents and patients in the community need your support to reduce the spread of this virus.”
Health officials again on Saturday reported near-record-breaking levels of new coronavirus cases across the state, saying hospital admissions could continue to rise.
Utah health officials filed about 1,500 new cases on Friday and an additional 1,340 new government cases on Saturday. Gary called Herbert “suicidal” for a week in new cases. Herbert again encouraged people to wear masks and practice social distance.
Even doctors like Winnick are worried about the impending holiday season, where cold snaps can gather people at home and mean further spread of the epidemic. The capacity of statewide hospitals was 73%.
Herbert did not issue a statewide mask order, but earlier this week he unveiled a new plan that would automatically cover faces in high-transmission counties and make masks mandatory in Washington, Iron and Garfield counties for the next two weeks. Herbert warned Friday that new areas could face new restrictions if the case count is not brought under control.
“This is important to ensure that our healthcare system is not overwhelmed,” Herbert said in a statement.
St. George’s News Weekend Editor / Reporter Chris Reid contributed to this story.
COVID-19 Information Resources
St. George’s News has made every effort to ensure that the information in this story is accurate at the time of writing. However, as the situation and science surrounding the coronavirus has evolved, some data have changed.
We invite you to check out the following resources for up-to-date information and resources.
Southern Utah Coronavirus Count (Oct Oct. 17, 2020, seven-day average in parentheses)
Positive COVID-19 tests: 5,252 (61.4 new infections every day in seven days, coming down)
- Washington Washington County: 4,145 (50.5 per day, dropping)
- Iron County: 870 (6.6 per day, increasing)
- Kane County: 93 (0.7 per day, increasing)
- Garfield County: ((1.9 per day, dropping)
- Beaver County: 62 (1.6 days, dropping)
Mortality: 45 (0.6 per day, excluding)
- Washington County: 38
- Iron County: 3
- Garfield County:.
- Kane County: 1
Hospitalized: 23 (dropping)
Received: Held at 4,235
Current Utah averages seven days: 1,222 (increasing)
Southern Utah counties at high transmission levels (masks required, assembled for 10 or less): Garfield (18.1% positive tests, 472.4 per 100,000 case rate)
Southern Utah Central Transmission Level Counts (Mask Required, Assembled 10 or less Oct Oct. 29): Washington Washington (12.6% positive tests, 327.9 per 1007 case rate), Iron (8.3% positive test, 153.5 per 100,000 case rate)
Southern Utah counties at low transmission levels (masks recommended, for 50 or fewer): Beaver (7.1% positive tests, 197,000 per 197,000 case rate), Kane (6.5% positive tests, 90.8 per 100,000 case rate)
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