Hospital ICU's getting stretched

Local ICU units are getting close to being maxed out because of rising Covid cases.

Athens and cleveland were recently included in a new york times report that listed them among the top ten emerging hotspots in the country for coronavirus.

This comes as both cities have nearly reached full icu capacity, with pfizer approving a highly anticipated vaccine just last night.

We now go live to news 12's kenan scott with how chattanooga's i-c-u capacity will be impacted with the rollout of the vaccine.

Emily, andrew i spoke with dr. jay sizemore, the medical director of infection prevention here at erlanger medical center who says that even though he's excited about this vaccine getting into the hands of medical workers as early as next week, the chattanooga community will still have to remain vigilant if they want to prevent icu units from reaching full capacity.

In the past week, startling news has emerged out of athens and cleveland as intensive care units hit 100 and 99 percent capacity, respectively, due to influxes of covid-19 patients.

These reports coming from the u-s department of health and human services paint a dangerous picture of the current condition of covid in these two tennessee towns, both of which were included in a recent new york times report of emerging coronavirus hotspots.

And while chattanooga's capacity rate isn't quite as high, at 81 percent, dr. jay sizemore with erlanger medical says that he expects that number to rise warning that right now, all options for a potential capacity limit were on the table.

"certainly as we've heard in the past, the potential for alternative care sites, potential of coming up with innovative ways to take care of these patients, potentially outside of hospital settings in a safe manner.

All of that, i would say, is on the table and open for ongoing discussion especially if the trends continue as they are."

And while dr. sizemore said he was glad that a covid vaccine was finally on the way, he warned that it would still take some time before we would see i- c-u capacity rates start to decline.

"even if the vaccine's available in the next ten days for healthcare workers, that's not going to reverse the trends that we're seeing now unless our community members change their behavior.

It's just not going to happen.

Vaccine is 95 percent effective it will not matter in the short run unless we're able to change our community's approach to this pandemic."

Sizemore urged chattanoogans to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing even with pfizer approving a vaccine just last night, saying that community behavior is just as important.

And one thing that sizemore wanted to stress was that even if icu units were to reach full capacity at erlanger, the medical professionals have protocols in place, to prevent the hospital system from being overwhelmed.

Reporting live in chattanooga, kenan scott news 12 now.

Chattanooga mayor andy berke used his weekly on-line