Indiana recorded 1,832 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a new all-time high in daily cases for the state. Those findings were reported at noon Friday by the State Department of Health.
This follows a record number of new cases reported in Elkhart County on Wednesday, straining the area’s health delivery system.
Michelle Bache, vice president of medical affairs at Elkhart General Hospital, said that after a period of improvement in COVID-19 numbers in September, the hospital is once again nearing capacity.
“Our deaths have doubled since Labor Day," Bache said. "The number of patients that we have in the hospital right now with COVID has tripled since Labor Day.”
Bache said the hospital will have to start transferring patients soon, but with cases spiking in neighboring counties, other local hospitals aren’t able to accept those patients. Instead, they’ll potentially have to go as far as Indianapolis or Fort Wayne.
And bed capacity isn’t the only problem — each bed needs a care team to staff it.
“We need environmental services, we need respiratory therapists, we need aids, we need transport," Bache said. "Those are harder to come by than just another bed.”
Bache said it's possible to get community spread under control before hospitals are overwhelmed. In addition to masking, hand-washing and distancing, she said a 14-day isolation period after receiving a positive COVID-19 test — or being exposed to the virus — is crucial.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo
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