When the bed is full of unvaccinated patients, hospital leaders beg the mainner to take a shot

Hospital leaders in Maine begged the public on Thursday to immunize against COVID-19, saying hospitals throughout the state are currently swollen with unvaccinated patients.

The state also reported 390 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. This is the highest total of the day since early May, but there are no new deaths.

Dr. Stephen Diaz, Chief Medical Director of Main General Health, the parent company of Augusta’s Main General Medical Center, said the hospital was “chunky” with COVID patients and qualified more than 300,000 people who did not receive shots. They to the mainner.

“We have to do everything we can to see the pandemic improve,” Diaz said Thursday at an unprecedented joint press conference by the state’s four major healthcare networks. .. “We all should be vaccinated for the health of the community, wear masks inside, stay at a social distance and stay home in case of illness.”

Hospital leaders did not require state-specific actions, such as returning to mandatory indoor masking or requesting vaccinations to attend indoor events. At the request of the hospital, Governor Janet Mills recently required all health care workers in the state to be vaccinated by October 1 as a condition of employment. Most workers are vaccinated, but some are protesting their mission.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Maine, explained the hospital’s capacity issues in a tweet Thursday. The Pandemic in Maine isn’t as bad as the rest of the country, but hospital beds are full. About four out of every five hospitalized were unvaccinated, Shah said.

“Today’s Statistics: Currently there are 133 people in COVID-19 hospitals in Maine. 59 are in the ICU and 27 are in the ventilator. Of the total of 332 ICU beds in Maine, 34 are Currently available. Yesterday (Wednesday) there were 39 available beds, and on Tuesday there were 52 people, “Shah said in a tweet. COVID’s Maine hospitalization peaked at over 200 in mid-January.

Hospital executives said they lacked the ability and ability to care for patients other than COVID.

Dr. Joan Boomsma, Chief Medical Officer of Maine Health, the parent company of Portland’s Maine Medical Center, said the hospital “has no more tricks” to add capacity for COVID-19 patients. ..

“The more COVID-19 patients we take care of in the hospital, the less resources we need to take care of everything else we have to do,” said Boomsma. Hospitalization should be stable. Otherwise, hospitals may soon have to regularly cancel or postpone elective surgery, as was done early in the pandemic.

Dr. James Jarvis, COVID-19 Incident Commander of Northern Light Health, the parent company of Eastern Maine Medical Centers in Bangor and Mercy Hospital in Portland, said hospital capacity for pediatric patients is also threatened by increasing COVID cases. Said that.

“We have reached a critical moment in the pandemic, where the progress of the Mainers determines what will happen next,” says Jarvis.

Jarvis said he was ready to set up a field hospital in the event of a shortage of existing beds, but he is reluctant to do so due to staffing challenges.

Boomsma has criticized the state and medical networks for vaccination obligations and predicts that workers will quit rather than be vaccinated, while some workers remain unvaccinated. He said he was more susceptible to COVID and could compromise the safety of patients and staff.

“We are losing staff because we are infected with COVID,” said Boomsma. “Currently, instead of losing staff with vaccines, we are losing staff with viruses.”

Hospitalization surged to more than 100,000 in August, almost doubling the total in July, according to national news reports. Patients are flooding hospitals in many states, including Florida, Tennessee, Washington, and Iowa.

Maine The 7-day average of new daily cases jumped to 203.4, Compared to 173.1 a week ago and 60.9 a month ago. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Maine has recorded 74,699 cases of COVID-19, killing 926 people.

Despite the large number of states as a whole, Cumberland County, the state’s most populous and highest vaccination rate, reported two new cases on Thursday. Penobscot County recorded the newest case with 90 cases, York County recorded 82 cases, followed by Aroostook County with 51 cases.

According to the US CDC guidelines, Cumberland County has moved to a moderate infection rate designation and has joined Sagadahoc as the only two counties with moderate viral infections. The 7-day average for new cases in Cumberland County increased in late July and early August, but has since leveled off, despite the state-wide daily average continuing to rise. , It has been on a downward trend for the past two weeks.

The Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Piscataquis, Waldo, York, and Somerset counties have high virus infection rates, and all other counties have been designated as substantive infections.

Shah said in a media briefing Tuesday that he expected a high number of COVID-19 cases this week as staff had to look at 1,700 untreated positive test results to determine the number of new cases. rice field. As delta variants become more widespread, test volumes have increased dramatically in recent weeks, from 258 tests per 100,000 people two weeks ago to 333 tests per 100,000 people today.

Main CDC spokesman Robert Long said Thursday that 1,700 tests had been processed, but has been receiving a ton of positive results ever since. The amount of positive test results is expected to remain high. In other words, the daily change in the cumulative number of cases will also be greater than after the spring of 2021. “

Maine reported that as of Thursday, 838,199 people had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s 62.3 percent of the state’s 1.3 million population.

Cumberland County leads the state with an overall vaccination rate of 73.6%, followed by Knox County with 68.2%. The two counties with the lowest vaccinations are Somerset and Piscataquis, with 49.9% and 52%, respectively.

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