COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Regional Hospital reached full capacity on Wednesday due to record COVID-19 hospitalizations and a “big jump” in the number of quarantined staff.
On Wednesday, a record 59 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 — the highest so far during the pandemic and up nearly five-fold since Nov. 1.
Hospital occupancy has since ticked down to a more “manageable” level, but still stood at 89% on Friday morning, CRH officials said.
CRH’s capacity depends on the number of available beds and having doctors and nurses available to staff them.
Currently, a record 55 CRH staff are quarantining due to testing positive for COVID-19 or having symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, up from 36 a week ago, the hospital said.
Not all of the quarantined staff are hospital employees.
A total of 44 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday morning, but hospital officials anticipate that number will rise over the course of the day.
“It’s certainly scary because we don’t see this being a trend that we just had to deal with this week,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “This is going to continue. The numbers are going to continue to rise.”
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
