An infection-controlled nurse accompanies a patient transferred from the ICU’s COVID unit to the COVID acute care unit at Harborview Medical Center on May 7, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.
Karen Ducey | Getty Images
The Covid outbreak is so severe in Washington state that hospitals are running out of intensive care beds, as the delta variant puts cases at record highs, state health officials said Wednesday.
At least one woman died while waiting for the ICU bed, Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director of the emergency department at Harborview Medical Center at Seattle Hospital.
“This patient who was seriously ill and unfortunately died in this small hospital when, after eight hours of trying, we could not find a ICU bed that could help sustain her life at this time. “Mitchell told reporters. conference with state health officials.
Another patient had to wait six hours for life-saving surgery and one patient had to be taken to an Idaho hospital that had a bed available, he said.
“Unfortunately, for long periods of time, we have reached a point where there are actually no critical care beds that are able to accommodate these patients throughout our state,” he said. Hospitals are short on all staff levels, from janitors to clinical staff, he added.
Cases are approaching historic highs set in December, currently averaging about 3,200 cases a day over the past week, according to a CNBC data analysis by Johns Hopkins University. Covid hospitalizations, however, have reached an all-time high in 1,460 Covid patients, officials said. Last month alone, 1,100 new Covid patients were hospitalized and doubled every 18 or 19 days, state officials reported.
All hospitals in the state are “stressed, stretched and tense,” Washington Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah said. Hospitalizations usually increase one or two weeks after an increase in cases, but deaths from covides in the state have remained relatively stable.
The highly transmissible delta variant now accounts for 96% of cases in the state and has led the count of cases to levels that are “as high as they have ever been in Washington state,” according to the acting chief scientist. state, Dr. Scott Lindquist.
The vast majority, 95%, of Covid’s hospitalizations in the state from February 1 to August 3 were people who were not fully vaccinated.
Statewide vaccinations have risen 21 percent in the past week and a 34 percent increase in the past two weeks as the delta variant dominates headlines, officials said.
“We are experiencing an increase in vaccinations among all age groups,” said Michele Roberts, acting deputy secretary of the state health department.
Most of the increase in vaccination occurs among older adults, as parents worry that the delta variant will spread to children when they return to school. About 48% of 12- to 15-year-olds in Washington have started vaccination, and 54% of 16- to 17-year-olds have also started vaccination.
“That is, about half of the children who are eligible in our state … we would love to see how those numbers increased especially with school,” Roberts said.
Washington ranks eighth among all states in terms of the amount of population fully vaccinated with two doses, about 59.5 percent, according to data from the Aug. 24 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, the state has vaccinated 71.5% of its population 12 years of age or older with at least one dose, according to the state health department, but some state counties are still lagging behind.
“If we had 70% of the whole state, every neighborhood, every county, every region, we would be in a different place,” Shah said.
Some counties have incredibly high vaccination rates in excess of 90% and other places remain in the 30% range, “and that’s what worries us all,” Shah said.
“Unfortunately, if people don’t get vaccinated and people don’t do the things they can to help, guess what, we will continue in this situation,” Shah said. “And I know most Washingtonians don’t want that.”