Kentucky Health News
As the surge of Covid-19 cases continues to escalate in Kentucky, from a strain of the coronavirus that is making people sicker than before, Kentucky is at risk of running out of intensive-care beds in its hospitals.
“The situation is serious and alarming, and we are rapidly approaching critical,” Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference about the pandemic.
And the prospect for the near future is not good, since the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus is higher than ever, 12.47%, and has risen 52 out of the last 53 days.
Use of intensive-care units and ventilators are expected to reach an all time high in another day or two, because they show a “vertical climb,” with “no sign that is abating,” Health Commissioner Steven Stack said.
“What we’re finding across the states is this disease, this version of Covid, the Delta variant, is hitting people harder, they are getting sicker and they are younger,” so more people are ending up in ICUs than in a regular hospital bed, and “We could find ourselves in trouble real fast,” Stack warned. “This will cascade and it will get worse.”
Beshear said, “By the end of this week, we expect to have more Kentuckians in the hospital battling Covid than at any point in this pandemic.”
Stack also noted that the state has a record 17 young people hospitalized with Covid-19, breaking the previous record of 12 in December. Beshear said, “Your kids are at a greater risk than they have been.”
Hospitals are worried about having enough staff to handle the load. Beshear said the state is working on being able to count staffed beds across the state, but at this time the best measure of that metric is anecdotal reporting by individual hospitals.
Beshear said there is no need for a field hospital at this time, largely because each hospital has individual plans for how to handle a surge of Covid-19 patients. He said the equipment to open such a hospital is ready, but it would be a challenge to find enough health-care workers to man it.
“We are going to hit that point where we need more help,” said Beshear.
Asked if he is considering emergency orders to fight the virus, Beshear again said that at this time there will not be “any form of shutdown” or “any type of capacity restriction,” although a statewide mask mandate is “under active consideration.”
“That’s where we are, that at least has to be a part of the conversation because if we run out of beds for people, if we run out of beds for people who are injured or sick or have a heart attack, don’t we have to do something? Don’t we have to do something to make sure we’ve got that capacity for everybody. And so that’s under active consideration,” said Beshear.