Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Over 100,000 Covid Patients Hospitalized; 77% Of ICU Beds Full
The Washington Post: Hospitalizations Hit 100,000 In United States For First Time Since January
There are more than 100,000 people hospitalized with covid-19 in the United States, a level not seen since Jan. 30 — when coronavirus vaccines were not widely available — as the country grapples with the delta variant’s spread. Hospitalizations are highest across the South, where every state in the region has a higher portion of its population currently hospitalized with covid-19 than the national level, according to a Washington Post database. More than 17,000 people are currently hospitalized with covid-19 in Florida, which has the most hospitalizations for covid-19 of any state in the country, followed by Texas, which has more than 14,000. (Pietsch and Dupree, 8/26)
The Hill: Three-Quarters Of ICU Beds Across Country Are Full
Hospitals report that three-quarters of the intensive care units in the United States are full, as COVID-19 continues to rampage the country. Federal data shows almost 77.3 percent of all ICU beds are occupied with 28 percent of those beds filled with confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Almost half of all states report their hospitals’ ICUs have exceeded 75 percent capacity. (Coleman, 8/25)
In news about children and pregnant women —
CNN: There's Never Been A Worse Time In The Pandemic For US Kids
There's never been a worse time in the pandemic for US kids. And things could get worse quickly. As millions of kids flock back to school, child hospitalizations for Covid-19 are at record levels. Some schools have already opened and then closed in the South, where infections are raging due to a comparatively low vaccine rate and the extra-infectious Delta variant. Thousands of children are quarantined. (Collinson, 8/25)
CIDRAP: US Pediatric COVID-19 Cases Now Match Winter Surge
More than 180,000 COVID-19 cases in US children were recorded in the week ending on Aug 19, reaching levels of the winter surge, according to the latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). More than one in five (22.4%) reported cases that week were in children. "After declining in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially, with over a four-fold increase the past month, rising from about 38,000 cases the week ending July 22 to 180,000 the past week," the AAP said in their report. (Soucheray, 8/25)
NBC News: In Covid ICUs, Doctors See A Surge In Critically Ill Pregnant Women
As the delta variant drives a surge in hospitalizations across the South, doctors say they’re seeing an unprecedented number of pregnant women critically ill with Covid-19."None of us has ever seen this magnitude of really, really sick women at one time," said Dr. Akila Subramaniam, an associate professor at the University of Alabama’s Birmingham Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Subramaniam and her colleagues estimate a tripling — or even quadrupling — of pregnant patients hospitalized with Covid. (Edwards, 8/25)
The covid surge continues unabated —
USA Today: New Mexico And Ohio To Curb Care Due To Rising COVID Hospitalizations
New Mexico's top health officials have had to establish a waiting list for intensive care unit beds for the first time ever and they're warning that the state is about a week away from having to ration medical care as coronavirus infections climb and nurses are in short supply. Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase said there was a 20% increase in COVID patients in just the last day, and that New Mexico is on pace to surpass its worst-case projections for cases and hospitalizations. Data shows 90% of the cases since February have been among the unvaccinated. (Hayes, 8/26)
Houston Chronicle: Houston Ambulances Face Lengthy Wait Times At ERs As COVID Patients Flood Hospitals
In a sweltering shopping center parking lot off Interstate 45 Thursday morning, Houston Fire Department paramedic Josh Walls tried to find a hospital to take his patient. “Negative,” came the reply on the radio. “All of TMC is on divert.” The six hospitals in the Texas Medical Center with emergency departments were asking ambulances to take patients elsewhere because they were at capacity. The patient, a 29-year-old construction worker with chest pain, asked to be taken to Northwest Houston Hospital. The dispatcher said it, too, was on divert status. Walls and his partner Valentin “Beau” Beauliere took him there anyway. (Despart, 8/25)
CNN: Mississippi's Nurses Are Resigning To Protect Themselves From Covid-19 Burnout
Earlier this month, Mississippi ICU nurse Nichole Atherton resigned, worn down by the stress, young patients and preventable deaths that have overwhelmed the state's hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. "It looks heroic," Atherton, of Singing River Ocean Springs Hospital, told CNN. "But that's not what it is. It's sweaty and hard and chaotic and bloody. And it's hard to live in this every day and then go home and live a normal life." (Holcombe, Hill and Dolan, 8/25)
The Washington Post: Oklahoma Nurses And Doctors Beg Unvaccinated To Help Stressed ICUs: ‘I Have Zipped Up Too Many Body Bags’
Exhausted nurses are pleading with the unvaccinated in Oklahoma to do their part as the state faces a surge in coronavirus hospitalizations that is forcing officials to expedite medical licenses to increase the number of front-line workers. At SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, half of the covid-19 patients were on ventilators, reported KFOR-TV. Amy Petitt, an ICU charge nurse at the hospital, fought through tears during a tour of a hospital pushed to its limits by the highly transmissible delta variant. Ninety percent of the 79 covid patients in St. Anthony’s ICU are unvaccinated, Tammy Powell, president of the hospital, told The Washington Post. (Bella, 8/26)
The New York Times: Florida Sees Worst Of Pandemic So Far
More people in Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic, underscoring the perils of limiting public health measures as the Delta variant rips through the state. This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now. The average for new known cases reached 23,314 a day on the weekend, 30 percent higher than the state’s previous peak in January, according to a New York Times database. Across the country, new deaths have climbed to more than 1,000 a day, on average. (Levin, 8/26)
CNN: Hospital Filled With Patients From Coronavirus Surge Was Forced To Turn Away Someone Needing Cancer Treatment, Doctor Says
Dr. Nitesh Paryani, a third-generation radiation oncologist in Tampa, Florida, recently was forced to make a decision that he says he and his family have never had to make in 60 years of treating patients. A nearby hospital was working to transfer a cancer patient to a location that had adequate treatment options. Paryani said he regularly accepts such patients, but for the first time, could not do so due to the number of those sick from Covid-19. "We just didn't have a bed. There was simply no room in the hospital to treat the patient," he told CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview Wednesday. (Caldwell, 8/26)
