West Tennessee COVID-19 cases reach 2020 highs, health officials say
JACKSON, Tenn. — With COVID-19 case numbers continuing to rise, the Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department, West Tennessee Healthcare officials, and government leaders are talking about the growing problem.
Jackson-Madison County General Hospital is seeing numbers similar to those recorded back in December, which was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in West Tennessee.
Health officials expect in these next few days to pass those numbers and set the record high.
West Tennessee Healthcare reported 154 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Wednesday morning. Of those, 66 were on ventilators and 38 were in the ICU.
“Those hospitalizations, for the most part, are preventable. We have half of our ICU beds that are full right now because 91% of the people that are in them chose not to be vaccinated,” said Amy Garner, Chief Compliance and Communications Officer for West Tennessee Healthcare.
Before the pandemic began, there were 72 adult ICU beds in the facility. As of Wednesday, there are a total of 73 ICU patients.
The unit has expanded and more beds are still available, but if the numbers don’t slow down, the hospital could face a capacity issue.
“Consider talking to your provider, consider getting the vaccination because we’re going to run out of ICU beds. The hospitals, not just our hospital, but other hospitals are facing this same thing,” Garner said.
It’s not just COVID-19 patients that worry hospital leaders, but other emergency patients as well.
“These hospitalizations could be prevented, and we need resources for people that do have other types of emergency conditions,” Garner said.
As patient numbers rise, the staff numbers are declining from working around the clock since the pandemic began.
“The difference is we have less staff than we had before. And the staff that we do have are exhausted, and we’re going to do everything that we can do to continue taking care of all the patients we can take care of,” Garner said.
West Tennessee Healthcare leaders are asking you to listen to your health officials, get vaccinated, and do what you can to stop this COVID-19 surge.
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For the latest COVID-19 information. check the COVID-19 tab of the website.
