The Delta variant continued its rabid course across the state this week, flooding hospitals across metro Atlanta with a surge of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
With 90% of state hospital beds full, 10 members of the Georgia National Guard with medical training have been designated to help combat the virus at a Cobb County hospital bracing for more COVID-related deaths.
Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta, a 633-bed Level II trauma center, is one of the largest and busiest hospitals in Georgia. It is in one of the hardest hit regions in the state, where 96% of ICU beds are full and close to 94% of all beds already have patients.
Gov. Brian Kemp included Kennestone among the 10 overwhelmed Georgia hospitals to receive 105 National Guard members in coming days. Other metro hospitals to receive troops include Piedmont Henry in Stockbridge, Piedmont Fayette in Fayetteville and Grady Hospital in Atlanta.
The governor’s Tuesday announcement came days after Kennestone reactivated its mobile morgue. It was not clear Friday if the temporary morgue is being used yet. Hospital officials said they were prompted to ready the morgue by the skyrocketing number of patients.
“Our numbers are going up in such a dramatic fashion,” said Dr. Danny Branstetter, Wellstar’s medical director of infection prevention. “It’s the steepest slope we’ve seen yet in the pandemic.”
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are treated at two facilities in Cobb County – Wellstar Cobb Hospital in Austell and Kennestone.
Branstetter attributed Cobb County’s high numbers to the fact that Kennestone serves as a regional referral hospital for Wellstar’s entire network. That means smaller hospitals from surrounding counties routinely transfer their patients there.
Critically low bed shortages in ICUs are also being driven by a nationwide shortage of nurses that pre-dates the pandemic, said Dr. Janet Memark, District Health Director of Cobb & Douglas Public Health. Less nurses to man the inpatient rooms means less beds.
Health officials say the National Guard is comprised of nurses, doctors and clinicians who may be able to ease the burden on frontline caregivers at local hospitals.
Memark said COVID-19 has strained staffing shortages that already existed.
“It’s just a situation where you need these specialized nurses,” she explained. “There’s only a finite supply and I’m sure a lot of them are pretty burnt out.”
The Delta variant is a fast-moving strand of COVID that’s caused the 14-day case rate for Cobb County to increase to 779 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents. Cobb schools cited more than 1,000 active cases in a report issued Friday.
On July 12, Wellstar was treating 76 patients for COVID-19 at its 11 hospitals. On Thursday, there were 268 patients in Cobb County alone. Branstetter said Cobb could soon reach the highwater mark it set in January, when the county peaked at 360 COVID patients.
Cobb County declared a state of emergency Aug. 19 due to a 486% rise in cases from mid-July, which pushed ICU bed usage rates to 95%.
The summer surge has meant longer and more stressful hours for hospital staffs. As patient volumes increased, doctors and nurses began working extra shifts to handle the onslaught. Branstetter acknowledged that some fatigue and frustration has set in for the frontline workers who’ve been battling the virus. Some of that stems from the fact that over 90% of the COVID patients being hospitalized during this surge are unvaccinated.
“We’re 20-plus months plus into COVID-19 and we’re all ready to be done just like members of our community,” Branstetter said.
Memark said Cobb’s bed count for COVID-19 patients could reach peak levels again by the second week of September. Branstetter said a lot of that will be decided Labor Day weekend, which begins Sept. 3.
“I think a lot of this surge is (from) what happened on July 4. So let’s see what Labor Day brings,” he said. “I think that’s going to be the big tale for what this peak really looks like.”
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