With COVID-19 cases doubling in MS Coast counties, local hospitals ‘stressed’ about beds
Coast hospital beds, including in intensive care units, are still available for COVID-19 patients, but that could change if cases continue to increase at current rates.
COVID-19 cases are doubling at alarming rates in four of six South Mississippi counties, data from the Mississippi State Department of Health shows.
While MSHD data shows available hospital beds, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has said that staffing for those beds is in even shorter supply.
“We are definitely feeling the stress, no question about that,” said Kent Nicaud, CEO at Gulfport Memorial Hospital, the Coast’s largest hospital. “But the Coast does have some available beds. There certainly is a surge here and all of us are busier than we have been.
“If the numbers continue to grow like they have in the last two weeks, there will be no staffed beds on the Coast. Staffing is obviously a big concern. We can’t even get contract staffing right now.”
Residents must wear masks, social distance
He said many traveling nurses are staying home because of the risk of COVID-19 infection. They also do not want to lose time at work if they come from areas with heavy caseloads and have to quarantine for 14 days, he said.
Singing River Health System also reported Wednesday that it has beds available at its Pascagoula and Ocean Springs hospitals.
The number of ICU beds open changes quickly as patients are added, discharged or moved to regular rooms. Coast hospital executives are meeting weekly to discuss the pandemic and available resources, Nicaud said.
Coast hospitals have not had to transfer patients to other cities or states, as has been reported in the Jackson metro area.
Dobbs said during a recent news briefings with Gov. Tate Reeves that the state had nine hospitals with no ICU beds and that the state’s four largest medical centers in the Jackson metro area had only one bed available.
“It’s just really important for people to be smart stay apart, wash their hands, wear their masks when they’re in public and isolate when they have symptoms,” said Sarah Duffey, Singing River’s media relations director.
Alarming COVID-19 increases in South MS
A new charge from the MSHD shows doubling rates for counties where COVID-19 cases are increasing rapidly, including Harrison, Jackson, Hancock and George counties.
Doubling rates for those counties:
Jackson County: 11.1 days
George County: 11.4 days
Hancock County: 16.1 days
Harrison County: 24.4 days
Jackson County has the second fastest doubling rate on the chart, exceeded only by the 6.3-day doubling rate in Coahoma County in northwest Mississippi. George County has the third highest doubling rate, the MSHD chart shows.
Harrison and Jackson counties are among 23 counties statewide under mandates requiring that masks be worn in public, and that social gatherings be limited to 10 indoors and 20 outdoors.
Reeves, who will hold a news briefing Wednesday afternoon, could add more counties to the mandate. He has said mandates will apply in counties with 200 new cases within 14 days or with an average of 500 cases per 100,000 people.
The state has a total of 47,071 COVID-19 cases and 1,423 deaths.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 2:00 PM.
