Delta Surge Cripples Hospitals: No ICU Beds Available

Will a 140-acre pasture at Cullman’s York Family Farms become ground zero for a COVID-19 spreader, and with no Intensive Care Unit beds available statewide?

The coming weeks will tell as the state and country, particularly the Southeast, experience a surge in the coronavirus led by the Delta variant.

The farm hosted the Rock the South music festival last weekend and a Donald Trump rally is scheduled for the site Saturday night. Both events did or will attract tens of thousands of people with face coverings optional

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines suggests masks at large inside gatherings for even those who have been vaccinated, Dr. Karen Landers of the Alabama Department of Public Health said masks should be considered everywhere in packed spaces.

“I don’t think inside versus outside is an issue,’’ she said Wednesday at the weekly COVID-19 briefing at the Huntsville City Council chambers.

Dr. Scott Harris, state health officer at the ADHP, has said Alabama is seeing “COVID numbers as high as we’ve seen.’’

And, according to Landers, there has been a huge increase of pediatric positive tests (1,356 to 6,181) from the same time last year.

“All kids can contract COVID,’’ she said. “That’s the way it is.’’

Tracy Doughty, president and COO of Huntsville Hospital, reported 146 inpatients within his system in Madison County with 36 in ICU beds and 24 on ventilators.

He said 85% of those inpatients were unvaccinated and that three unvaccinated patients accounted for three deaths in a 24-hour period as of Wednesday. The average inpatient age is 55 with the youngest being 3 and the oldest 95.

“It’s busy at the hospital,’’ he said. “We feel like we’re back in January and February of this year with the number of cases we have.’’

Doughty said the Huntsville Hospital system has reserved four ICU beds for severe cases, but that 20 are housed elsewhere who would normally be in the ICU.

He also said elective surgeries have been suspended and physicians could delay other surgeries, if deemed safe, to “preserve beds and labor.’’

The lack of ICU beds statewide finally reached a peak.

“We’re in the negative for ICU beds in the state of Alabama,’’ Landers said. “What does that mean? What that means is we have no more designated ICU beds and now we’re having to make adjustments in the way we manage patients.’’

Landers also confirmed that Harris has asked the federal government for aid, but couldn’t put a timeline on whether or not that help would come.

Meanwhile, Huntsville Hospital will begin administering a third COVID-19 vaccine shot to immunocompromised people on Monday. A booster vaccine for the general public is expected to be available at least by late September.

Landers, like most health officials, continues to urge practicing safe guidelines and to get the vaccines.

“There’s a great deal of unnecessary suffering and a great deal of unnecessary death,’’ she said. “We have ways to defeat this virus.

“We can debate (the issues) later.’’