This Again Warned Staff You Do
Jae C. Hong/AP
FILE - In this Nov. xix, 2020, file photograph, registered nurse Virginia Petersen works on a computer while assisting a COVID-xix patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills department of Los Angeles. U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement and recruiting nursing students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
DENVER – Hospital capacity across Denver is now "razor sparse" and things could get worse if those working on the frontlines of the pandemic start getting sick as the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus continues to spread unchecked, hospital leaders warned Tuesday.
Hospitalizations, which had been declining steadily over the past couple of weeks following the surge from the state's 5th wave, are climbing again in Denver, with the city reporting about 150 people hospitalized for the disease every bit of Tuesday – a 34% increase over terminal week.
"Nosotros've seen a sharp uptick in the final couple of days and if we stay at this trajectory, we also will accept a record number of inpatients," said Kathy Howell, the principal nursing officer for Academy of Colorado Infirmary.
Well-nigh 98% of the infirmary system's ICU beds are total and their acute intendance beds are well over capacity, Howell said, calculation she's concerned for what the omicron variant will exercise to an already exhausted workforce who is non only tired, only who is likewise at present getting ill from COVID-19 due to the variant'southward effectiveness at bypassing vaccine-induced protection.
"This is probably going to be the scariest indicate of the pandemic over the next calendar month," she said during a virtual news conference in which she was joined by other Denver surface area hospital leaders, along with Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver Department of Public Wellness and Environment (DDPHE) executive director Bob McDonald.
The dire warning came as Mayor Hancock said the urban center's positivity rate is now at 25% – five times of what is recommended to get a handle on the spread of the illness. As of Tuesday, one in four Denverites were coming back positive after getting tested for the virus, he said.
Explaining that he could not emphasize the importance of getting your booster, Hancock urged Denverites to get them so equally soon equally people are eligible, as staying out of the hospital is the relief hospitals and frontline workers need right now to maintain capacity.
"Doctors, nurses, and infirmary staff accept been doing their job on the brink at present for two years. They need a interruption," Hancock said. "Through a simple act of getting vaccinated or getting our booster shot, we can help them get that break."
Bob McDonald, the DDPHE executive social club, too urged Denverites to become vaccinated if they hadn't already and warned the variant of the new virus, due to its loftier transmissibility, will find those who are unvaccinated and potentially send them to the hospital.
"We take close to 1,000 unvaccinated people throughout Colorado that are in hospitals right now – many on ventilators – who thought they didn't need to go vaccinated. They thought that their immune organization was fine, they think they're in great shape – and maybe they are – simply that wasn't enough to keep them from going to hospitals," he said, adding less than half of patients in Denver hospitals are Denver residents.
He reminded everyone who tests positive – regardless of vaccination status – to stay home for five days and wear a mask for an boosted five days if you lot're symptom free. If you've exposed and take received your booster shot or are recently vaccinated, you're asked to use a mask for x days, test on day five and stay home and test for COVID-19 once again if you lot develop symptoms. For unvaccinated people who've been exposed to the virus, y'all're asked to stay home for five days, test on the fifth twenty-four hour period, and if y'all develop symptoms, to exam for COVID-19 and stay habitation.
Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE).
"Finally, we just tin't say this enough," McDonald said. "We wouldn't exist having this conversation right at present about hospitals – many of which in Denver are at chapters; they're tapped out. They don't take any beds available left. We wouldn't be having conversation if everyone was getting vaccinated."
Dr. Connie Price, the chief medical officer of Denver Health Medical Center, said Tuesday that omicron now accounts for most infections throughout the City of Denver, and said she was growing concerned due to the number of health care workers who were out sick – more and so now than any previous week during the pandemic.
"I retrieve we are in for a tough ii-to-three weeks," Cost said, as the omicron surge is but now kickoff in Colorado. "We are working together to make sure we can take care of the community. It'southward a challenge to do so with depleted staff."
It'south non only at hospitals where the Denver metro is experiencing a reduction in staff due to the omicron variant, co-ordinate to Dr. John Douglas, the executive managing director of the Tri-Canton Wellness Department.
Health intendance workers getting sick with COVID-19 is also having an impact at community testing sites, which are getting inundated with people trying to go tests as they come back from the holidays and become their kids ready to return for the spring semester.
"I think we can await that nosotros're going to keep to see difficulty getting the rapid tests. They are in short supply nationwide and I don't recollect we'll be getting whatsoever, any time presently," said Dr. Price. "That said, this is so predominant in the community. If you lot cannot get your hands on a rapid test and you feel symptoms of an illness or a cold, it's best to stay home, assume you have COVID for your five-day menstruum."
When asked nearly the surge in omicron cases and the render to school, and whether that would mean a return to remote learning, McDonald dismissed the idea and said health officials at DDPHE were doing everything they could to non disrupt the school learning process.
"Face coverings and vaccines exercise that," McDonald said. "We're not discussing any additional restrictions on schools and certainly not closures."
From her part, Dr. Dawn Comstock, the executive managing director for Jefferson County Public Health, said she's already talked with officials at Jeffco. Public Schools to accept them prepare for potential schoolhouse closures and a return to remote learning.
"Give omicron, it is very likely that schools may have to close considering of staff shortages considering of high rates of illness," Dr. Comstock said, every bit she asked parents to not give schoolhouse officials a hard time and bide by mask mandates so kids could stay in school.
"This is not politics, it's public wellness," Hancock said. "Get vaccinated, get additional."
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Source: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/coronavirus/denvers-hospital-capacity-razor-thin-as-cases-explode-hospitals-warn-of-staff-shortages-due-to-omicron
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