A wave of new confirmed cases of coronavirus It is rapidly increasing and saturating hospital emergency rooms in several cities in the United States, which has led patients to the corridors and nurses to work overtime to try to deal with the sudden increase.
Patients struggling to get air are hooked up to respirators in emergency rooms as intensive care units are maxed out, officials said, and the constant care they require represents a work overload for the medical staff dealing with the problem. same time with an increase in the number of emergency cases, such as chest pain, infections and fractures.
In another Florida state with a marked increase in infections, hospital staff underscored the urgent need for remdesivir – a drug that appears to reduce average hospitalization time – for coronavirus patients who have caused a shortage of beds.
The authorities of Florida More than 10,000 new cases and 90 more coronavirus deaths were reported Saturday.
In response, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that 30,000 vials of remdesivir are being shipped to the state – enough to treat about 5,000 patients.
The vials will arrive directly at hospitals in the next 48 to 72 hours, DeSantis said during a conversation with doctors at a St. Augustine hospital.
Florida hospitals treat more than 9,000 coronavirus patients, according to state data. Overall, there have been almost 338,000 confirmed cases and 5,002 deaths.
Emergency room doctors and nurses were surprised by the relentless flow of seriously ill patients during 12-hour work shifts, said Dr. Bernard P. Chang of the New York Presbyterian Hospital System and the University of New York Medical Center. Columbia.
“We are on high alert throughout the entire working day,” said Chang. “It is a brutal and ongoing battle.”
Contagions have soared in most Sun Belt states. Megan Jehn, a professor of epidemiology at Arizona State University in Tempe, said it is important to monitor visits to emergency rooms because of increases They may be a sign that the virus is spreading faster.
Arizona health authorities reported a new peak in coronavirus deaths reported overnight, with 147 and confirmed 2,742 new cases.
The new deaths and infections reported on Saturday raised the confirmed statewide totals to 2,730 deaths and 141,265 cases.
In Texas, Dr. Alison Haddock, of the Baylor School of Medicine, noted that the current situation is worse than that seen after Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Houston with heavy rains in 2017. The state reported a new record of infections daily on Friday, with more than 10,000 confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day.
“I’ve never seen anything like this increase in COVID,” said Haddock, who has worked in emergency rooms since 2007. “We do the best we can, but we don’t integrate an intensive care unit.”
Patients must wait for hours before being treated, the doctor regretted, and less serious patients are placed in beds in hospital corridors to assign rooms to sicker people.
Across Seattle, which was the nation’s first outbreak of coronavirus, a new wave of patients is beginning to rush to the emergency room, according to nurse Mike Hastings.
“For me, what is really frustrating is when a patient comes to the emergency room without really having COVID symptoms, but they feel like they need a test,” said Hastings, who works at a hospital and is president of the Association. of Emergency Nurses.
In most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that disappear in two to three weeks. In some people, especially older adults and those with underlying health conditions, it can lead to more serious illnesses, such as pneumonia, and even death.
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