University of Utah Hospital overcapacity as the ‘unsustainable’ coronavirus outbreak continues – Salt Lake Tribune

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Utah shattered its previous record for coronavirus hospitalizations Friday and one of the states largest hospitals said it was forced to set up extra beds because the intensive care unit was full.

University of Utah Hospital was bringing in doctors and nurses for overtime shifts Friday to staff new beds after its ICU reached more than 100% capacity, said hospital spokeswoman Suzanne Winchester.

The hospital in March set up a regular unit to have the monitoring capability of an ICU, said Dr. Russell Vinik, chief medical operations officer.

But we dont have staffing for that ICU," he said. "That is made by doctors, nurses, therapists working extra shifts and extra time.

The hospital normally has room for 111 ICU patients, Vinik said. With the makeshift ICU, there is room for 134 patients but with 115 patients admitted as of Friday, there was room for only 19 more, he said. The hospital had been adding three or four ICU patients each week but with 1,496 new cases Friday, Utah saw its weekly rate of new cases reach unprecedented levels this week, and that means even more new ICU patients are likely on the way.

That makes us that much more concerned in preparing for whats ahead of us for the next month or more, Vinik said. We have dedicated staff and everybodys pitching in, but we cant keep doing this for months and months. We need the publics help to do what they can do.

The spike in cases is unsustainable, Gov. Gary Herbert agreed in a statement released with the daily coronavirus report. Utahns must wear a mask around others, socially distance, and limit social gathering sizes. Unless we do these things, we can expect to see more sobering days like today."

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall called this a deciding moment.

The actions we take in the days ahead will determine whether or not our systems are able to handle our healthcare needs, Mendenhall said. We have to do everything we can.

Herbert said four more counties are expected to be declared high transmission areas next week, a designation that brings heightened restrictions, such as longer-term mask requirements and limits on social gatherings. Six counties were already in that category as of this week.

The 15 moderate transmission counties already were under mask requirements and 10-person limits on gatherings as part of what state officials are calling a two-week circuit breaker intended to reduce infection rates during a weeks-long spike that has made Utahs outbreak one of the worst in the nation. The 15 moderate counties are Box Elder, Carbon, Davis, Grand, Iron, Millard, Morgan, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah, Washington and Weber.

Its unclear which four of those counties are on track for tighter restrictions; nine of them now have per-capita rates of new cases that exceed the states threshold for high" transmission levels, but another criterion the percentage of tests that come back positive is not reported daily at the county level.

The six counties now under the states highest restrictions are Salt Lake, Utah, Wasatch, Cache, Juab and Garfield. A seventh, Piute County, had both the states worst number of new infections per capita and percentage of tests with positive results, but it remained in the low transmission category because its small population made its data relatively unstable, said Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko. It is considered under review but the virus has become so pervasive there that the countys schools were forced to shut down because so many employees were on quarantine.

Utahs new guidelines are more strict than they were, but they remain more lax than other, national models.

For example, the White House Coronavirus Task Force guidelines assign the highest-risk red zone label to any county with more than 101 weekly cases per 100,000 people less than Utahs high transmission two-week infection rate of 325. Under the White House metrics, 23 of Utahs 29 counties would have the most stringent rules. The same White House guidelines place any county reporting more than 10% of its tests as positive in the highest-risk category a lower bar than Utahs threshold of 13%.

Meanwhile, public health teams at Harvard and Brown universities developed metrics that define transmission risks at their highest level when a population confirms an average of 25 daily cases per 100,000 people during one week, or 350 new cases in two weeks. Thats slightly higher than Utahs two-week case threshold but the model also calls for more aggressive restrictions at that level, advising: Stay-at-home orders necessary. If that were to be implemented here, 13 of Utahs counties would be under lockdown.

And the numbers are only getting worse. For the past week, the Utah Department of Health has tallied 1,224 new positive test results a day, on average, continuing a streak of new record highs.

Utahs death toll from the coronavirus stood at 537 on Friday, with eight fatalities reported since Thursday:

Hospitalizations rose sharply Friday, with 290 Utah patients actively getting care, the state reported, far exceeding the previous high of 259. The weekly average also hit a record high at 256.

In total, 4,559 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, up 48 from Friday. For the past two weeks, the state has reported 643 new hospitalizations, by far the most of any 14-day stretch.

Utahs ICUs were 75% occupied as of Friday, above the states threshold to move counties to high restrictions under some circumstances, according to the states guidelines.

The rate of new cases per capita remained higher in Utah County than in any other local health district, but with a record-breaking 696 new cases, Salt Lake County was approaching similar infection rates. Herriman reported the most cases per capita in the past week, followed by Draper and the eastern neighborhoods of West Valley City.

Wasatch and Tooele counties and the Central and Southeast Utah health districts also reported record new cases for the past week.

Statewide, the positivity rate remains in the 13% to 14% range that state officials say indicates there are far more people sick than those getting tested. On Friday, it was at 13.9%.

There were 9,307 new test results reported on Friday, above the weeklong average of about 8,000 new tests per day.

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University of Utah Hospital overcapacity as the 'unsustainable' coronavirus outbreak continues - Salt Lake Tribune