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New Mexico hospitals at 102% ICU capacity, and other states are not far behind

As COVID-19 case numbers soar across the nation, hospital ICUs are reaching — and in some cases exceeding — capacity, according to an internal government report obtained by Yahoo News.

New Mexico has reached a three-day average of 101.9 percent of staffed adult ICU beds, and other states are not far behind, according to a Dec. 3 COVID-19 senior leadership brief.

While New Mexico has the highest three-day average, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that five other states — Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Oklahoma and Rhode Island — are using 70 percent or more of their ICU beds and have also seen sharp rises in the number of patients over the past 14 days. Dozens of other states are also already at or exceeding 70 percent capacity.

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There are currently more than 100,000 Americans being hospitalized for COVID-19, nearly double the amount at the beginning of November. Per the HHS documents, more than 20 percent of total patients in hospitals are dealing with COVID-19, also a sharp rise from September and much of October, when that rate sat in the single digits.

Source: Health & Human Services
Source: Department of Health and Human Services

More than 277,000 Americans have died from the disease, with the record for single-day deaths being set this week, according to tracking from Johns Hopkins University. Experts are concerned that despite health care workers and hospitals already being stretched thin, it is likely that case counts will only continue to rise with weather cooling and holiday events looming.

“Our hospitals … are very close to running out of both ICU beds and regular beds,” Dr. Rohini McKee, a critical care physician at the University of New Mexico Hospital, said during a teleconference on Monday. “Given the numbers that we’ve seen over the past few weeks, the health care system … is going to be overwhelmed.”

“I think that what we’re going to see is the Thanksgiving travel will manifest itself in about two weeks. That is when we will probably see these numbers go up,” McKee added. “I don’t expect that we’ve reached a peak at all. I do expect that … we’re going to have an increase in [hospitalized COVID patients] about two weeks from now.”

Source: Health & Human Services
Source: Department of Health and Human Services

In a recent interview with Yahoo News, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the real impact of Thanksgiving gatherings and travel is still to come, and will get worse moving toward the end of the year. Colder weather and “sequential holiday seasons” would likely lead to escalating hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks ahead.

“You do the math on that,” Fauci said. “Two to three thousand deaths a day times a couple of months, and you’re approaching a really stunning number of deaths.”

If the U.S. were to reach 3,000 deaths per day, it would push the total number of American deaths to above 400,000 over the next two months.

In an attempt to slow the rapid spread of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on Friday calling for universal use of face masks outside the home.

“With colder weather, more time spent indoors, the ongoing U.S. holiday season, and silent spread of disease, with approximately 50% of transmission from asymptomatic persons, the United States has entered a phase of high-level transmission,” read the CDC report, which stated that mask use is most important in indoor spaces where social distancing can’t be maintained.

Jana Winter contributed to this story.

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