On Sept. 4, East Alabama Health recorded an all-time high of 93 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 23 patients on ventilators with COVID-19.
In a press release, EAH spokesman John Atkinson said the reported number reflects the number of patients already in an inpatient bed at a specific time. That number does not include COVID-19 patients who are waiting in the Emergency Department for a bed assignment.
"At one point on Saturday, we actually had 94 COVID patients hospitalized and had several more waiting in the Emergency Department for a bed to become available," Atkinson said. "In the past couple of weeks, we’ve had some patients — both COVID and non-COVID — have to wait 24 hours or more in the ER before being able to be placed in a bed on a nursing unit. It’s a pretty surreal situation at this point with little reason to believe it will get better in the immediate future."
The number of COVID-19 cases across Alabama have increased dramatically in the last few months. On July 3, the state reported 179 COVID-19 patients in hospital beds. On Sept. 1, that number was 2,890.
According to the press release, there will be a statewide moment of silence coordinated by the Alabama Hospital Association at noon tomorrow, Sept. 7, to remember the over 12,000 Alabamians who have died from COVID-19. All are encouraged to participate, and hospital staff and physicians from across the state will be participating.
“The Delta variant is causing unprecedented devastation and grief in Alabama,” said Dr. Donald E. Williamson, president of the AHA. “We had hoped that we’d be in a better place this fall, but our hospitals are full, and families across the state continue to deal with tremendous loss. Our dedicated healthcare workers are under incredible physical and emotional strain, yet still are giving all they have to care for their patients. Likely, all of us know someone who has been negatively impacted by COVID-19, and we would like to take a moment to pause and remember these individuals.”
As of 3 p.m. today, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported 2,566 new confirmed cases, with a testing positivity rate of 21.4%.
There are 2,777 confirmed COVID-19 admitted patients in hospitals statewide today. Of those, 53 are pediatric patients, 837 are in the ICU and 607 of those are on ventilators.
There were 67 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Alabama yesterday. Over the past 10 days, there have been 484.
Of all ICU patients in Alabama, 52% are COVID-19 positive.
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Trice Brown, senior in english language arts education, is the multimedia editor of The Auburn Plainsman.
