Region’s hospitals back to zero ICU beds
Although the Biden administration has continued to assure Americans they can still hold holiday gatherings if they are vaccinated, the World Health Organization asked people not to.
“There can be no doubt that increased holiday mixing in many countries will lead to increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths,” WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing on Monday.
On Wednesday, the Oregon Health Authority reported that Region 2, the six-county hospital region that encompasses Yamhill County, once again had no adult Intensive Care Unit beds available, and only seven adult non-ICU beds. Statewide, there were 59 available adult ICU beds out of 673 total, and 269 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,135 total.
As of Wednesday, Yamhill County had reported two new deaths this week, bringing the county to a total of 155 deaths. A 76-year-old man died Nov. 30 at Willamette Valley Medical Center. A 62-year-old man tested positive Nov. 19 and died Dec. 3 at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Tedros warned people not to increase their risk, with Omicron spreading rapidly. “An event canceled is better than a life canceled,” Tedros said. “All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal. The fastest way to do that is for all of us, leaders and individuals, to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others.”
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown extended the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration on Tuesday.
The Oregon Health Authority reported on Wednesday that new cases of COVID-19 increased by 10% last week, and testing increased by 21%.
It said 286 new hospitalizations from COVID-19 were reported last week, a 21% decrease from the previous week, and deaths also decreased. The OHA reported 114 deaths last week, the lowest weekly toll since the last week in October.
Both hospitalizations and deaths have lagged behind increases in new cases by two to three weeks throughout the pandemic, as it often takes infected people a week or longer to develop symptoms severe enough to need hospitalization.
Comments
GreggR
Is this a physical lack of beds, or lack of staff to care for the patients that need beds?
Loretta
And once again we are being fed incomplete reporting in order to scare people. Here is the obvious question: how many of those filled beds, were Covid patients, just Covid? We are told the new variant is mild like a cold AND it is filling hospitals to capacity. So which is it?
tagup
Nationally the large majority of hospitalizations are unvaccinated individuals. Children have been a segment that has grown significantly in recent weeks. You are correct that the Omicron variant is generally milder.....for vaccinated individuals.