The delta surge of COVID-19 patients is rapidly filling ICU beds in the Triangle
Intensive care units in the Triangle and statewide are rapidly being filled with COVID-19 patients, as the highly contagious delta variant, a mutation of the coronavirus, continues to spread in North Carolina.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported Friday that 635 adult patients are in intensive care, a quarter of all people hospitalized in the state.
Just a week ago, 424 COVID patients were in the ICU — that’s an increase of nearly 50%.
About a month ago, there were fewer hospitalizations due to COVID-19 overall than there are ICU patients now.
At the local level, ICU capacity is limited in the Triangle, according to an analysis from The New York Times.
At Duke University Hospital and Duke Health Raleigh, ICUs are full.
At the Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, two ICU beds are available.
At the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill and UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, both operated by UNC Health, six and three ICU beds are available, respectively, according UNC Health officials.
Three ICU beds are available at WakeMed’s Raleigh campus. None are available at the WakeMed hospital in Cary.
But WakeMed is able to expand this capacity, as it did during the pandemic’s peak in the winter, according to Dr. David Kirk, critical care specialist at WakeMed.
Kirk said WakeMed is at 90% of the expanded capacity they created in the winter.
“Our numbers went from essentially nothing to where we are in two weeks,” Kirk said. “That definitely has taken us aback. That being said, we’re not having any problems taking care of the patients that we have. We’ve got capacity. We’ve got what we need.”
Officials at all three health systems said the number of available beds changes from day to day.
In a public statement earlier in August, Duke Health officials said Duke hospitals regularly hit capacity levels during seasonal surges and they are accustomed to handling a high amount of patients.
But COVID-19 is stressing the system, they said.
“The influx of COVID cases is an added pressure, and we urge everyone in North Carolina to get a COVID vaccine to avert a situation where hospitals are overwhelmed,” the statement read.
Last month, state health officials said that 94% of new COVID cases are among those unvaccinated.
As of Friday, 48% of North Carolina’s total population is fully vaccinated. Among those eligible for the shot, 56% are fully vaccinated.
In Wake County, 59% are fully vaccinated. In Durham and Orange counties, the rates are 58% and 76% respectively.
‘Desperate for people to vaccinate’
With a second surge in hospitalizations and ICU patients — the first over the winter — officials at WakeMed and Duke Health said their workers are exhausted.
“Every time they have a surge, they run to the fight, and they really throw themselves in to save these incredibly ill patients. And then right when we think the war is over, it all starts up again,” Kirk said. “It’s just kind of this repeated emotional trauma.”
He said many health workers — locally, statewide and nationally — are leaving the emergency care field due to exhaustion from COVID.
Dr. Lisa Pickett, chief medical officer at Duke University Hospital, said the surge is worse this time due to staffing shortages and more children being affected.
She said pediatric care units at Duke are full, requiring more staff having to focus on children when they didn’t have to during the last surge.
And with ICU beds being filled almost entirely by unvaccinated people, Pickett said there is a frustration among health workers because the surge in cases is preventable.
“There is a certain amount of frustration because the people that we’re seeing that are the most ill right now are much younger, and they are unvaccinated. The thought that this was potentially preventable, and the deaths were just potentially unnecessary is a heavy weight for our teams,” Pickett said.
Kirk said health workers are urging people to follow the science.
“They’re so desperate for people to mask. They’re so desperate for people to vaccinate. They’re so desperate for people to help their neighbor,” Kirk said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 3:35 PM with the headline "The delta surge of COVID-19 patients is rapidly filling ICU beds in the Triangle."