Officials: Hospitals statewide straining under weight of COVID-19 cases
Dec. 3—EAU CLAIRE — State officials released grim numbers on COVID-19 hospitalizations Thursday, telling reporters that Wisconsin health care systems are struggling with an influx of ill COVID-19 patients.
On Nov. 30, the state logged its highest-ever number of patients on ventilators — 688 people, said Karen Timberlake, Department of Health Services secretary-designee. The state's previous high was 638 people, a record logged just over a year ago on Nov. 18, 2020.
"With so many hospitals and health care workers already stressed by caring for COVID-19 patients, it becomes increasingly difficult to treat patients who come in for other reasons," Timberlake said Thursday at a press conference.
In a 15-county area in northwest Wisconsin, which includes Eau Claire County, no ICU beds and only two intermediate care beds were immediately available as of Thursday, according to Wisconsin Hospital Association data.
Timberlake said Thursday that statewide, 97% of intensive care beds and 98% of intermediate care beds are currently in use.
"We want you to seek medical care when you need it, so please do your part by getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and for the flu to help our health care workers and preserve space in our hospitals," Timberlake said.
Hospitalizations have increased locally for the second week in a row, the Eau Claire City-County Health Department wrote in a Nov. 26 situation report, "prompting concern that deaths may also soon increase, as demonstrated by prior data trends."
Statewide, around 20% of hospital beds at Prevea facilities are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients. That number isn't as clear-cut as it may sound, said Prevea Health President and CEO Dr. Ashok Rai.
"A bed is not a bed in healthcare. A bed is a room, nurses, CNAs, our (environmental service workers) to clean the room and physicians to take care of that patient," Rai said Thursday. "COVID-19 patients are extremely labor-intensive. One COVID patient may take away up to three beds for a (patient with a) different type of disease."
A Prevea hospital in Green Bay had to turn away 28 people seeking care, including three people with strokes, Rai said. The patients had to be transferred to facilities 100 miles away.
"This has been a long battle for those of us in health care, especially frontline nurses and those in the ICU ... it's very frustrating when you know you have a stroke patient coming in and can't take care of them the way you want to," Rai said. "Illness preventable through vaccination is happening."
Unvaccinated people are far more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated people if they catch COVID-19, state and national data show.
Timberlake said Thursday that state data indicates that people who aren't vaccinated are nine times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than vaccinated people; unvaccinated people 50 and older are 13 times more likely to be hospitalized.
Younger kids newly vaccinated
More than 87,000 Wisconsin children aged five to 11 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Timberlake said Thursday.
The state has not yet released county-level vaccination numbers for children under 12.
About 57% of 12 to 15-year-olds in Eau Claire County have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, along with 61% of 16- and 17-year-olds.
About 59% of Eau Claire County residents in total have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about 57% are fully vaccinated, according to state data.
Kids now make up the largest share of new cases, both statewide and locally.
Children under 18 in Wisconsin were the age group with the lowest share of COVID-19 cases until September. Now they make up the largest share of new cases — most notably, cases are more common currently in kids between four and 13 years old, Timberlake said.
