Suburban hospitals say they're closer to running out of beds in new COVID-19 surge
With COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide almost doubling since November, suburban hospital officials told the public it's in their power to keep beds open and ease the load on their staffs amid the latest virus surge.
Advocate Health Care "has 505 COVID-19 inpatients across our Illinois hospitals, more than twice as many as one month ago," spokeswoman Lauren Rohr said Tuesday. "This situation is growing more challenging by the day - beds are tight, wait times are long and our team members are strained.
"Despite that, our commitment to providing safe, quality care remains strong."
Advocate operates 10 hospitals with sites in Barrington, Downers Grove, Elgin, Libertyville and Park Ridge.
"We strongly urge people to get vaccinated and to get a booster shot," Rohr said.
Average daily hospitalizations in December are now at 3,327.7, compared to 1,696.3 in November, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed.
At Northwestern Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and Delnor Hospital in Geneva, "if you look at our licensed beds, are we running recently over that number of patients? We certainly are," said Dr. Kevin Most, chief medical officer for both facilities.
But it's not a situation with gurneys in the hallways, Most said.
"We have overflow areas that we use deemed to be safe, and we staff them appropriately. They're still comfortable areas for people to be cared for."
Illinois hospitals were treating 4,008 COVID-19 patients Monday night, the most since Dec. 30, 2020. Of 31,600 beds across the state, about 20% were open, COVID-19 patients occupied nearly 13%, and patients with other conditions made up about 67%.
Back in December 2020 when vaccinations were just starting, COVID-19 patients at Central DuPage and Delnor "were truly sick," Most said. "What we're seeing now is the impact of the vaccine," which has reduced the number of ICU hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients.
Cook County Health, which includes Stroger Hospital, has implemented its surge plan to handle a flood of patients but has not canceled any non-urgent procedures, spokeswoman Elizabeth Pederson said.
"We are asking people to take common-sense steps to avoid infection, including limiting gatherings with people outside your household, avoiding indoor unmasked activities like eating or drinking at a bar or restaurant, wearing your mask, and washing your hands," she said.
New cases of COVID-19 totaled 10,264 Tuesday with 63 more deaths from the respiratory disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
On Monday, 56,394 more COVID-19 shots were administered. The seven-day average is 65,165.
The state's positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 5.7% based on a seven-day average, up from Monday's 5.5% level.
So far, 7,646,900 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 60% of the state's 12.7 million population, according to the IDPH. "Fully vaccinated" means two Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The federal government has delivered 21,092,625 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December, and 18,697,629 shots have been administered.
Total cases statewide stand at 1,985,779, and 27,291 Illinoisans have died since the pandemic began.
Labs processed 179,269 virus tests in the last 24 hours.