Hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Hamilton County hit new records repeatedly this past week – including a single-day spike to 114 Thursday – as the county continues to face the most severe outbreak of the global pandemic so far.
People in the hospital with the virus, a key metric for understanding the severity of the outbreak, have trended upward in the county since the beginning of the month and are now higher than during the early part of June, which was the deadliest month for the county so far.
The record high for hospitalizations has been broken four times this week, following other single-day increase records in Hamilton County and Tennessee. However, the total number of hospitalizations includes those now being treated for the virus as well as people at the hospital awaiting test results for suspected infection – a change in reporting from earlier in the pandemic, when hospital data separated “patients under invitation” from those with confirmed COVID-19.
Daily hospital capacity data released by the county Friday showed five available intensive care unit beds across Hamilton County’s three major health systems – Erlanger, CHI Memorial, and Parkridge – the lowest number of available ICU beds reported since the county began releasing those numbers in April.
However, that number alone can be misleading because it represents the number of beds available that are currently staffed and not the actual number of beds, said Lisa McCluskey, vice president of marketing and communications for CHI Memorial Hospital. Nurses are on call if a greater need arises, she said.