Arkansas runs out of intensive care beds for COVID patients

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) – Arkansas ran out of intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began on Tuesday, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced as the increase in cases continued to overwhelm state hospitals.

The state’s ICU capacity for COVID patients barely diminished hours after Hutchinson’s announcement, with only one hospital in southeast Arkansas showing availability, according to the state’s coordination system. coronavirus patients. Patients with viruses account for about half of the state’s ICU beds. The number of patients with viruses in ICUs and ventilators reached a new high on Monday.

“Everyone should know the stress this poses for our hospitals and the need to be vaccinated and the importance of our space in bed,” Hutchinson told reporters at a news conference.

Hutchinson said state hospitals were working to open more ICU beds for virus patients. Renee Mallory, chief of staff to the Arkansas Department of Health, said a hospital planned to open extra beds later Tuesday and possibly later in the week. The Department of Health said Tuesday that the total available beds at the state ICU fell from four to 18.

“For us, it’s much harder to coordinate these transfer requests,” said Jeff Tabor, program director for Arkansas COVIDComm, the state’s system for matching COVID-19 patients with hospitals. “Patients during the summer climb are much sicker than during the winter climb.”

Arkansas ranks fifth in the country in new cases per capita, according to figures compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with 40% of the state’s population fully vaccinated.

The state reported more than 2,200 new cases of virus and 45 new deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday. The state reported that 10,950 additional doses of the vaccine have been administered. The overall number of COVID-19 patients in the state fell from 44 to 1,367.

Dr. Jose Romero, secretary of state for health, said the increase in cases continues to maintain the capacity of the state ICU.

“The more beds we open, the more they will be filled,” Romero told reporters.

Baptist Health planned to open 18 additional ICU beds, 15 of them for COVID-19 patients, at its Fort Smith and North Little Rock hospitals. Greg Crain, president of the Baptist metropolitan area, said he expected to open beds in Fort Smith on Friday and North Little Rock on Aug. 31.

In a report released earlier on Tuesday, public health researchers predict that the state’s death toll from COVID-19 will exceed 7,000 by August 30th. Arkansas reported Tuesday that 6,749 people have died from the virus since the pandemic began.

“If this prediction is met, COVID-19 will have killed more Arkansans than all the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries,” said the forecast from Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The researchers ’forecast also predicted that the number of children hospitalized due to COVID-19 will increase by 20% by August 30 and by 34% by September 14.

“Hospitalizations and patients requiring intensive cases have reached a record number and have put our hospital system in a precarious position,” the report states. On the cover of the report was a photo of a forest fire, a reference to how UAMS researchers have described the increase in cases and hospitalizations in the state.

The state Department of Health also issued a warning on Tuesday that it did not warn people not to use livestock drugs to try to treat COVID-19. Counseling follows an increase in calls to the Arkansas Anticide Control Center about people taking ivermectin for animal or livestock use.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ivermectin in both humans and animals for some parasitic worms and for head lice and skin conditions. It has not been approved for use in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in humans. Some Republican lawmakers in Arkansas have promoted the drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

The warning warns that the veterinary formulation of the drug can be highly toxic to humans. Some symptoms associated with ivermectin toxicity are rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurological disorders, and potentially severe hepatitis requiring hospitalization.

This week, the Mississippi health department issued a similar warning about ivermectin use.