Oklahoma City ICUs near capacity as COVID-19 cases surge
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — According to a local ER doctor, several ICUs across the Metro are maxed out or close to capacity as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to soar.
"The water level is at the top so just any extra drop is going to knock us over the edge, I think that's the level we're at," said INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center Emergency Room Physician, Dr. Jason Benn.
Hospital systems across the metro are once again on the brink of overflowing. The rush of patients fueled by the delta variant is creating a third wave many doctors didn’t even see coming.
"It caught me off guard," Admitted Dr. Benn, "Because we had gotten to a point where it really felt like we were, we were winning and we were on top of it. We knew about the Delta variant and we knew that it was out there, I just didn't realize it would move as fast as it was going to."
Dr.Benn says over the past month he watched COVID beds in the ICU go from empty, to completely maxed out almost every day this week.
"Four weeks ago the census where I work was zero COVID patients in the hospital and now we're running about 18 to 20 a day," he warned, "That's a pretty rapid increase."
Across the state, COVID hospitalizations have more than doubled in just the past two weeks. This, as new data reveals the delta variant is about as contagious as the chickenpox, with each infected person able to infect five to nine others.
"That's obviously the big concern, the projections are we're not even supposed to hit a peak until sometime in September," he said.
To help slow the spread, many health care workers are continuing to push Gov. Kevin Stitt to re-declare a State of Emergency. However, when FOX 25 asked the State Department of Health today where they stood on the measure they replied in part, “While the current COVID-19 trends are concerning, we will continue to monitor the data closely to see if additional action is needed.”
"People need to know that we're in the same situation we were when it was at its worst. So I do think that if we declared a state of emergency at least people would be more aware of where we are," explained Dr. Benn.
In the meantime, Dr. Benn says those ending up in the hospital with COVID this time around are younger, sicker, and almost all unvaccinated.
"That's what makes it frustrating is you sit there and you watch somebody struggling to breathe and it didn't have to be that way. That’s the hard part," he said.
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