By JORDYN BROWN/Eugene Register-Guard
Lane County’s hospitals are filling up as the number of COVID-19 patients continues to increase due to the delta variant driving a surge across the state.
It has reached a point where Eugene-Springfield hospital leaders said Wednesday they’re worried about how to keep up with the demand for care if cases keep trending up and are planning to bring in the National Guard to help.
Lane County is experiencing a surge of cases in an area where just under 56 percent of the population is vaccinated. The county had more than 500 cases reported over the weekend, more than in much-larger Multnomah County.
They urgently called on the public to get vaccinated to help slow the spread, noting the vast majority of those in the hospital are unvaccinated, but the cases are spreading across age groups. This includes school-age children, who saw more than 300 new cases in the past seven days, according to Lane County Public Health spokesperson Jason Davis.
“There is not much room at the hospital, full stop,” said Dr. Harry Scholtz, an infectious disease doctor at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. “We have most of the ICU beds occupied with the critically ill patients. Most of the step down, intermediate units are full as well, sometimes with patients that would otherwise be in an ICU.
“The amount of capacity that our ICU is able to absorb right now is far below what would be normal — we’re talking small single-digit percentages of capacity available in the ICU setting as well as hospital setting, writ large,” he said.
PeaceHealth’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. James McGovern said they also have seen more patients filling beds.
“We’ve gone from admitting about on average nine COVID-19 patients a day. That’s up from five a couple weeks ago,” he said. “Right now, we have roughly 50 COVID beds on ICU, and most of those are filled, but we do have a couple open. Likewise, we’ve set aside 24 ICU beds for COVID. Again, we try to keep one or two of those open … .”
However, those two open beds can fill and empty quickly by day as people come in or are moved/discharged.
Lane County reported 79 confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the countywide case count to 17,812, according to Lane County Public Health. The death toll remained at 180.
One thousand twenty-five were reported infectious, down 13% from Monday’s 1,182.
There were 92 hospitalized, 45 are from Lane County, which is one more than Monday. Twenty-one were in intensive care, nine are from Lane County, up two from Monday. Eight were on a ventilator, one from Lane County, an unchanged count from Monday.
The death reported Monday by LCPH was a 69-year-old man who tested positive July 30 and died Aug. 12 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.
As of Saturday, 214,956 people in Lane County were vaccinated, 56.36% of the total population, with 434,706 first and second doses administered, according to the Oregon Health Authority.