Public health leaders have enacted “crisis standards of care” which allows hospitals in Idaho, overwhelmed by the Delta variant of COVID-19, to focus on emergency treatment only. They cite “a severe shortage of staffing and available beds in the northern area of the state” with other states warning of similar measures to come.
Fears are also growing about the Mu variant, which was found earlier this week to be present in all U.S. states except Nebraska. Scientists are concerned it may be somewhat resistant to current vaccines but Dr. Anthony Fauci has sought to reassure the public, suggesting it is not considered an “immediate threat”.#
Over 300,000 new COVID cases were reported yesterday, the vast majority of them the Delta variant, with daily deaths now averaging around 1,500 for the first time since March.
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Woman struggling to breathe has surgery ‘pushed back’ as hospital overwhelmed with COVID
Betsy Phillips, a writer for Nashville Scene’s political blog “Pith in the Wind,” wrote on Tuesday that she had recently received a phone call notifying her that her operation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, had been pushed back.
I am not having surgery this week. The hospital is too full of COVID patients, and the ORs are being shut down so that personnel can deal with COVID patients instead—patients who are mostly unvaccinated. My surgery will be rescheduled maybe in October, depending on COVID.
Phillips, age 47, is suffering from a “granulomatous issue brought on by a histoplasmosis infection,” she explained in an email to Newsweek.
READ MORE: Woman With Trouble Breathing Has Surgery Delayed Due to COVID Patients Filling Hospital
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Hospitals in Idaho enter their first full day of emergency-only care today after public health leaders in the state admitted the system was overwhelmed by new COVID-19 patients.
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