Daily US Times: US hospitals preparing for another coronavirus surge as number of cases in several states have been rising for days. One doctor from a Houston hospital, which is partly transformed into a coronavirus specialty unit, says he expects to reach capacity in the next 14 days.
Dr. Joseph Varon, the chief medical officer at United Memorial Medical Center, says: “In the last three weeks, I have seen more admissions and sicker patients than on the previous 10 weeks.”
“It’s been an exponential increase on the severity of illness and on the number of cases that we admit.”
Coronavirus surge have been appearing in many other hospitals across America.
This week, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 12 states are seeing a rise in daily hospitalizations.
The trend is worrying: A sharp increase in coronavirus patients can once again overwhelm hospitals, putting critical resources including beds, ventilators, and staffing in short supply.
Some hospitals are already so swamped that they’ve transferred patients elsewhere. Doctors in parts of Texas report waiting lists for their ICU beds, while others have had to decide which patients to admit, incapable of treating all those seeking help.

Halth care professionals are seeing sicker and younger patients and making a simple plea: Wear a mask and stay at home.
The recent sharp increase in cases come weeks after many states began reopening their businesses after extended closures intended to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Dr. David De La Zerda, the ICU medical director and a pulmonologist at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, says: “I live close to a beach, and you can see it’s like a party every single day.”
Florida and Texas are among the states which are seeing an increase. According to forecasts published by the CDC, these two states are expected to see nearly 2,000 new hospitalizations per day by mid-July.
In California and Arizona, the forecasts project about 1,500 new patients each day in the next two weeks.
Houston hospitals transfer patients out
At least two hospitals are “pretty much at maximum capacity,” in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas.
On Wednesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said: “The threat … Covid-19 poses to our community right now is higher than it has been. There is a severe and uncontrolled spread between our families, friends, and communities.” Turner said.
“And we need to slow it down, so that it doesn’t overwhelm our health care delivery system.”
He said that several hospitals in the state are still within capacity limits.
United Memorial Medical Center is among them, which is hovering at about 80% capacity.
As the situation gets intensified, parts of the hospital are quickly transitioned into coronavirus units, airtight zones have been created around sections where infected patients are stationed.

“These patients are very sick. These are patients that are about to die. So, we have to admit them and once they are here, despite of everything that we do, they have to stay in the hospital anywhere between 5 to 10 days at a minimum,” Varon said, who is working more than 100 consecutive days now.
“So sooner or later, within the next two weeks, we’re going to be at full house.”
Texas reported 6,904 total hospitalizations on July 1, which is a staggering record high and an increase of more than 2,500 patients in a week. The state’s peak of hospitalizations have recorded in May was 1,888.
‘We are having an explosion of Covid’
Some public health administrators and local officials are already reporting strained hospital capacity with the latest influx of patients.
Bexam County reported a big Coronavirus surge this week the number of hospitalizations continues to rise while hospital capacity has shrunk to a little more than 20%.
Over the weekend, one southern California county reported a 99% intensive care unit capacity, after taking in overflowing patients from neighboring Imperial County.
Supervisor Victor Manuel Perez said: “Since mid-June, there has been a growing health crisis with rising coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and ICU bed usage throughout our nation, the state of California and here in Riverside County.”
State and local leaders have said that more young people are testing positive for the virus in recent weeks than in the early days of the outbreak. Leaders are ging warning that they can spread the virus even though they may not become severely ill.
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