Officials: Rising virus cases have not filled all beds
As the number of people hospitalized due to complications of COVID-19 hit an all-time high Monday, state officials were quick to reassure Oklahomans that hospitals still have capacity.
In a news conference Tuesday, officials also outlined a new, four- tiered hospital surge plan that they say will be complete in the coming days.
Figures provided in conjunction with the surge plan also offered the first glimpse at just how many COVID-19 patients Oklahoma' s hospitals can handle.
Oklahoma is currently in the first tier of the surge plan, which means fewer than 15% of the patients being admitted to hospitals statewide have COVID-19, said Patti Davis, president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association.
If Oklahoma exceeds 851 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide for more than three consecutive days, then hospitals will likely advance to tier two of the surge plan, which would allow them to boost staffing levels through the Medical Reserve Corps and transfer recovering patients to other medical facilities.
If the state has more than 1,135 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide for more than three consecutive days, hospitals will have to limit elective surgeries in an effort to reduce capacity.
Interim Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said working with the hospitals is a balance because the state does not want to dictate how hospital administrators run their businesses.
“We do not manage them,” he said .“They manage capacity. We do not manage capacity.”
The hospital surge plan will be based on regional, not statewide, hospital capacity, but officials did not have regional hospital data readily available Tuesday.
The surge plan will ask hospitals within a region to work together to evenly distribute COVID-19 patients. The plan has not yet been publicly distributed.
“Let me make this very clear that this plan only works with optimum cooperation, not only from our state agencies, but our hospitals, along with nursing homes, l ong- t erm care acute care, rehab hospitals and specialty hospitals,” Davis said. The previous surge plan, the second the state had solidified with metro- area hospitals, lapsed at the end of September.
As Oklahoma is seeing a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, Gov. Kevin Stitt encouraged residents not to worry.
“We're seeing an uptick in our hospital counts across the state over the past few weeks,” he said. “But I want you to know, we have the hospital beds, we have the capacity, we have the workers available to take care of COVID and non-COVID patients across the state of Oklahoma.”
He encouraged Oklahomans to continue to social distance in public places, wear a mask and wash their hands often.
Asked if the rising cases and hospitalizations would spur Stitt to impose a statewide mask mandate, the governor said he still has no plans for such an order.
Masks have been proven to reduce the spread of COVID19 in Oklahoma and across the country. Some Oklahoma health professionals have begged the governor for months to impose a statewide mask mandate.
The number of Oklahomans hospitalized due to COVID-19 has climbed in recent weeks as the state has repeatedly set new all-time highs for the number of patients in hospitals.
On Monday, Oklahoma hospitalizations of those with COVID-19 or suspected of having COVID- 19 topped 800 for the first time with 821 people in the hospital and 319 people in intensive care units.