With the increase in COVID-19 cases, Alabama hospitals have run out of ICU beds, causing more than 20 critically ill patients to wait for empty beds in the emergency room.
Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States, with only 36% of the population is fully vaccinatedOn Wednesday, it reported “minus 29” ICU beds, indicating that this may be the case in other states with low vaccination rates.
“We’ve never been here before. In terms of our ICU bed capacity, we are now really in uncharted territory,” AHA President Donald Williamson (Donald Williamson) Tell WSFA 12 news, At the NBC branch in Montgomery on Tuesday.
WHNT, a CBS subsidiary in Huntsville Hospital staff are forced to transform corridors, general wards, and emergency rooms into areas that can treat patients who need ICU beds.
Williamson added: “If we increase the number of vaccinations to a higher level, this situation can be avoided.”
In July, Republican Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama also accused those who still refused to get vaccinated. Because of the increase in COVID-19 cases in her state, she said they “disappointed us”.
Currently has 645,851 in total Alabama has reported COVID-19 cases, an average of 3,728 cases per day.
In the week ending August 12, one-fifth of U.S. ICUs have reached or exceeded 95% of their beds. Most of the hospital admission crisis is concentrated in the south, The New York Times found.
