COVID-19 hospitalizations, deaths to continue to rise, NM health officials say

New Mexico’s already-strained hospital system could need
more than 700 beds for COVID-19 patients by next week,
a startling increase from the nearly 400 beds now used by people being treated for the disease, state health officials said Wednesday.

For more than a week, hospitals statewide have been on the verge of rationing care because they’re so full, a move known as implementing crisis standards of care. On Tuesday, only 30 intensive care beds were available in New Mexico.

“Keep in mind we already have all the actual beds full. These are stretch beds where we’ve converted areas” into patient rooms, Dr. David Scrase, the state’s human services secretary and acting secretary of the Department of Health, said Wednesday during an online news briefing. “Our transfer center continues to run, continues to move people around the state to try to get people into whatever hospital bed is open,” he added.

Modeling from Los Alamos National Laboratory projects 700 to 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus
and three to eight additional deaths a day in early September. Nearly 68 percent of eligible New Mexicans are fully vaccinated, though there are several pockets, mostly in the (Republican) southeastern part of the state, where the vaccination rate is below 50 percent.
“The majority of infections that we’re seeing is among unvaccinated individuals, and this is what’s driving this current surge of cases,” Ross said.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/covid-19-hospitalizations-deaths-to-continue-to-rise-new-mexico-health-officials-say/article_c4ea4456-0b35-11ec-9df1-af6ac6a99cfa.html