DIRE IN DIXIE

Alabama Is Officially Out of ICU Beds Amid Delta Surge

“We’ve never been here before,” said the head of the Alabama Hospital Association.

Alabama’s current surge of COVID-19 cases has outstripped its supply of intensive care unit beds. “There were 1,568 patients today who need ICU beds, and there are only 1,557 designated ICU beds in the state today,” Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association, said Tuesday. “We’ve never been here before. We are in truly now in uncharted territory in terms of our ICU bed capacity.” Hospitals across the state have converted wards dedicated to other types of care into ICU beds to deal with the overflow of patients. The reason for the surge, as is true in states across the U.S., is the coronavirus ripping through pockets of people who have not received a vaccine against it. Williamson said, “This could have been prevented had we gotten vaccination numbers to higher levels.”