COVID-19 In Pennsylvania: UPMC And AHN Say Current Coronavirus Case Counts Arent Stressing Capacity Yet – CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Despite concerns the rise in COVID-19 cases will overwhelm hospitals, the regions two major health systems say they have sufficient capacity to handle any surge.

It comes as the Wolf administration is pointing at modeling from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington that projects the state will run out of ICU beds in December.

In the last four to five weeks, both UPMC and Allegheny Health Network have seen a dramatic uptick in COVID hospitalizations but both systems say this number of patients is far from stressing their capacity.

They have more than enough intensive care unit beds and can convert others should the need arise. Still, the systems say their capacity could be stretched if there is an even more dramatic surge and urge people to follow protocols this holiday week.

If it is unabated, there could be a really dire situation we could confront, but I think theres been such a focus on this that I hope the community really does get that its in their hands, and they really should do this wisely and safely and I think well all get through this together, said Donald Whiting with AHN.

The hospital system and the independent hospitals have been conferring regularly about sharing resources and meeting demand should number continue to climb.

The Wolf administration Monday announced new coronavirus mitigation efforts Monday as modeling projects 22,000 new daily coronavirus cases in the state come December.

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COVID-19 In Pennsylvania: UPMC And AHN Say Current Coronavirus Case Counts Arent Stressing Capacity Yet - CBS Pittsburgh