Wave of COVID hospitalizations pushes health systems to the brink of collapse | Washington News

SEATTLE (AP) – Hospital executives, doctors and public health officials said on Thursday that a spike in hospitalizations for COVID-19 is pushing Washington state’s health systems closer than they are have never been from a point of crisis.

The effects of the rapid transmission of the omicron variant have focused as hospital heads and health officials detailed the trends in severe cases of COVID-19, which have been on the decline since the peak of the delta l variant. last year, the Seattle Times reported.

So far, King County and western Washington have suffered the full brunt of the omicron peak, but the rest of the state is not far behind, health officials said. State during a press briefing Thursday.

At the University of Washington Medicine’s four campuses – three in Seattle and one in Renton – hospitalizations for COVID-19 are higher than they were at any other time in the pandemic, according to Dr. John Lynch , medical director of the Harborview Medical Center’s infection control program.

There are early signs that these new infections are causing less serious illness, especially in those vaccinated, said Dr Francis Riedo, medical director of infection control and prevention at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, in a briefing. separated with hospital officials.

However, Riedo called it a numbers game.

“A small percentage of a million people is still a huge number,” he said.

King County averaged about 31 hospitalizations for COVID-19 per day as of Thursday, a 76% increase over the past week.

Lynch urged Washingtonians not to go to hospital emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing or treatment for a mild virus because health systems are quickly reaching the point where they can no longer treat many more. patients.

Factors that challenge hospitals even more include rising worker infection rates – forcing workers into quarantine – delayed care, barriers to discharging patients who no longer need hospital care, and access limited to statewide testing.

“We are entering, I think, into the most difficult phase of this pandemic, period,” Lynch said.

Unvaccinated people continue to suffer from the worst symptoms, with a risk of death 15 times higher than those who are vaccinated, state health officials said Thursday. Importantly, Lynch said, vaccinated Washingtonians are still infected, albeit at a “much lower rate.”

Those who have received booster shots are the most protected against both infection and hospitalization, he added. The United States said this week that all people 12 and older should receive a COVID-19 booster as soon as they are eligible.

Two associations of state physicians and physicians on Thursday called on Governor Jay Inslee and Secretary of State for Health Dr Umair A. Shah to declare a statewide crisis in the hope to open emergency resources for hospitals.

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