Editor’s note: NJ Spotlight News celebrates the second anniversary of the arrival of COVID-19 in New Jersey, focusing on how the disease has changed our lives and what life looks like now. In this story, we look at overcrowded state hospitals to determine if they can handle COVID-19 cases along with patients who need other services. You will find all our stories related to the pandemic here.
As COVID-19 enters an endemic phase, one of the key issues is not the oversaturation of hospitals. A number of people, especially the unvaccinated, will need intensive care – possibly including a ventilator if they are infected.
Over the past two years, hospital systems in many states have been stressed during one or more virus waves. New Jersey was at its worst a month after the pandemic: in April 2020, more than 8,000 people were hospitalized – about 1,700 on mechanical ventilation. Then the virus was so new, and health professionals did not know how to treat it: there were no vaccines and no antiviral drugs specifically targeted at the coronavirus.
Hospital admissions increased by 50% compared to last week, and pediatric patients almost doubled, leading to a critical shortage of staff
There is some evidence that end-of-term masks and other restrictions can be managed until another deadly option emerges and people keep their vaccines up to date. Late last year and earlier this year, the Omicron option led to a record high number of new daily cases in New Jersey, averaging 22,000 a day for a month and exceeding 38,000 on Jan. 7. whether hospitals would be able to cope with the workload, the number of people in need of medical care remained below the level of April 2020, with a maximum of less than 5,500 people and less than 550 per ventilator.
While NJ Spotlight News hit the charts tides daily hospital censuses, these data do not provide a cumulative number of those in need of hospital care. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has data on total revenues by states from August 1, 2020 and breaks them down by weeks and age groups. Although this does not include the early effects of COVID-19 in New Jersey and other states severely affected by the initial wave, it provides a better available view of the impact of the virus on public hospital systems and those who have applied there. . New Jersey ranked 21st with 1,228 admissions per 100,000 population, or a total of nearly 114,000 people.
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