Utah’s supply of monoclonal antibodies and antiviral medications for COVID-19 is running out as the number of new cases broke a state record again Thursday.
And Utah’s hospital leaders are warning that more bed shortages are imminent amid record coronavirus infections.
“Our staff are afraid to come to work,” said Tracey Nixon, chief nursing officer for University of Utah Health. “They know we do not have the staff to care for the patients the way we need. ... I [recently] had three nurses leave because they can’t do this again.”
More than 8,900 cases were reported Thursday, breaking Wednesday’s record high 7,200 new cases. Thirteen new deaths were recorded Thursday, including a child, said Dr. Michelle Hofmann, deputy director of the Utah Department of Health.
Hospitalizations for the coronavirus have been rising since Christmas — 530 coronavirus patients were hospitalized as of Thursday, Hofmann said — but Utah’s hospitals have not yet seen the worst of the recent spike in cases, as patients typically aren’t admitted for at least a few days after testing positive.
Although the omicron variant of the virus generally produces milder illness than previous dominant variants did, health experts have warned that the sheer number of new infections means hospital admissions are almost certain to continue rising.
Meanwhile, Utah hospitals already are short-staffed because so many employees are calling in sick or isolating because family members have fallen ill. University of Utah Hospital on Tuesday reported more than 500 of its employees were out sick, and some scheduled surgeries were being delayed.
“We were on ambulance divert for six hours last night because our [emergency department] was overwhelmed with patients seeking care,” Nixon said.
And one resource Utah had promoted to avoid hospitalizations — monoclonal antibodies provided to high-risk patients shortly after diagnosis — is nearly gone.
“We were treating 1,000 [patients] per week,” Hofmann said in an online news conference with hospital administrators. “This week we were only able to order [treatments for] 264.”
With only about 220 courses of oral antiviral treatments available statewide, those treatments are now available to less than 1 in 8 qualifying high-risk patients who are infected, Hoffmann said.
Caseloads are likely to become more “explosive” in coming weeks, with at least 12,000 new daily cases expected by the end of the month, Hofmann said — if infected people can get tested in the first place.
“Our testing locations are bursting at the seams,” Hofmann said. “People are spending hours in their vehicles waiting to be tested.”
Before this week, the highest daily case count was less than 5,000.
The Salt Lake Tribune will update this developing story.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3HDWtAI
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