Tennessee hospitals are now caring for more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients, eclipsing a benchmark that health and policy experts have been closely monitoring.
More of those patients are also in intensive care and requiring ventilators, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
About 16% of intensive care beds remain available statewide, according to a Tennessee Department of Health dashboard.
The situation is similar in Nashville, where the worsening pandemic has also pushed another local metric out of the acceptable “green” status. With 199 people hospitalized in the city, bed capacity has dipped to 18% and intensive care bed capacity to 17% — both tripping past the threshold in the past day.
This graph by Nashville officials shows the trend in hospitalizations since late June.Metro Public Health Departmentasafenashville.org
Only two of the city’s six metrics remain in the green, while the transmission rate and trend of increasing cases are in the “red.”
NewsChannel 5 reports the rise hits amid a concern about adequate staffing in hospitals. Williamson Medical Center has again suspended elective procedures.
Meanwhile in Knoxville, a recent report to the Knox County Board of Health detailed a rise in younger adults being hospitalized. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the University of Tennessee Medical Center is seeing a rise in COVID-19 patients under age 40.
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