This morning, the NY Times reported that “[m]ore than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds,” with “[h]ospitals serving more than 100 million Americans reported having fewer than 15 percent of intensive care beds still available as of last week” and with “[o]ne in 10 Americans — across a large swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest — liv[ing] in an area where intensive care beds are either completely full, or fewer than 5 percent of beds are available.”
Also, NPR reported this morning:
The ratio of COVID-19 hospitalizations to total beds gives a picture of how much strain a hospital is under. Though there’s not a clear threshold, it’s concerning when that rate rises above 10%, hospital capacity experts told NPR.
Anything above 20% represents “extreme stress” for the hospital, according to a framework developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
If that figure gets to near 50% or above, the stress on staff is immense. “It means the hospital is overloaded. It means other services in that hospital are being delayed. The hospital becomes a nightmare,” IHME’s Ali Mokdad told NPR.
So how are we doing in Virginia? Check out the maps, below, which find Virginia to be relatively well off compared to some states (e.g., check out Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio, etc.). As for Virginia, here are a few numbers that jump out:
- In Chesapeake, ICUs are at 98% occupancy.
- In Roanoke, ICUs are at 92% occupancy.
- In Newport News, ICUs are at 89% occupancy.
- In Fairfax, ICUs are at 87% occupancy.
- In Lynchburg, ICUs are at 86% occupancy.
- In Winchester, ICUs are at 85% occupancy.
- In Richmond, ICUs are at 84% occupancy.
- In Reston, ICUs are at 82% occupancy.
- In Petersburg, ICUs are at 80% occupancy.
- In Alexandria, ICUs are at 80% occupancy.
- In Wise County, 71% (!) of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Prince William County, 30% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Franklin County, 24% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Mecklenburg County, 20% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Washington County, 20% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Russell County, 17% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Montgomery County, 17% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Augusta County, 16% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Chesapeake, 16% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Fairfax County, 14% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Tazewell County, 13% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Hanover County, 13% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
- In Chesterfield County, 12% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
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