Local Hospitals Calling On Community To Help Stop Spread Of COVID-19

Hospitalizations have hit record breaking numbers in the state over the week, the highest over 700.

Wednesday night the state reported 697 people were in the hospital.

In the most recent state COVID-19 report it showed only 13% of ICU beds were available.

“There is no doubt there is high community spread and hospitalizations have never been higher,” said Dr. Kersey Winfree, the Chief Medical Officer at SSM Health St. Anthony.

Winfree said it is a delicate balance to keep beds open for patients who come in with COVID-19 and to make sure they have capacity to take care of people who come in for other medical care.

"Those aren't going to stop. Those aren't going to go away, and we have to continue to provide the care and services that those people need. We have to balance that with preserving enough capacity to treat the COVID-19 patients,” said Kersey.

That is echoed by other doctors in the metro, like OU Medical’s Dr. Dale Bratzler.

"Oklahoma does have hospital bed capacity but we do have limitations with staffing like nurses so that is a concern,” said Dr. Bratzler, OU’s Chief COVID-19 Officer.

He said if things don’t turn around, we could be in a worse situation in the future.

"We would have to move to a more aggressive surge plan that might restrict certain activities like elective surgeries and other things which delays patient care,” said Bratzler.