Germany Sees Exponential Rise In CasesGermany recorded 11,409 new daily infections and 42 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the latest data from the country's infections disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute.
More than 280 regions across the nation are now considered coronavirus hotspots, having exceeded the government threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within the past seven days.
The number of new coronavirus infections in Germany is likely to reach 20,000 a cases/day at the end of this week, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has said.
“We are dealing with exponential growth,” Altmaier told a German-French economic conference via video link in Berlin.
“In Germany the number of new infections is rising by 70-75% compared to the week before.”Altmaier’s forecast shows that Germany is contending with a faster upswing in coronavirus cases than previously expected. At the end of September, Chancellor Angela Merkel said there could be 19,200 cases per day by Christmas.
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‘It’s Apocalyptic’: El Paso Cardiologist Fears Non-COVID Patients Will Die Due to Hospital Overflowhttps://kvia.com/coronavirus/2020/10/26/its-apocalyptic-el-paso-cardiologist-fears-non-covid-patients-will-die-due-to-lack-of-hospital-capacity/EL PASO, Texas-- Hospital capacity has a prominent El Paso cardiologist fearing for his patients.
"We are canceling every single elective procedure but as you understand, cardiac procedures most of the time are not elective if you're having chest pains, if you're having fainting spells because you're heart is not performing well you need those procedures preformed," said Dr. Juan Taveras, a cardiologist with Las Palmas Del Sol.
As ABC-7 has reported, hospitalizations are up 300% in less than a month's time. El Paso hospitals are at full capacity, and providing care to non-Covid patients has become increasingly challenging."To me this is apocalyptic, there is no other way of describing it," said Taveras.
Some area hospitals have already made plans to voluntarily air-lift non-Covid patients in the intensive care unit to other Texas cities. While those patients will be receiving the care they need, for Taveras not being able to treat his patients is concerning.
"This is not only a concern from a physician who has a relationship for a patient for the last 20 to 25 years it's also the concern for the family members that are not able to travel to San Antonio, Houston or Austin," Taveras said.
University Medical Center's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joel Hedryx offered this assessment of the capacity crisis on Monday afternoon.
"We realized that this is the
unexpected (huh?), this is something that we've not had to do before, we're having to house the patients here for a day or two until they are able to go home," Hedryx said.
Ultimately, Taveras fears this capacity issue will lead ambulance bays to be backlogged forcing patients to wait in line for critical care.
"This is a disaster, people are going to start dying, as a matter a fact they started dying already - not because they have the Covid, but from the Covid because the Covid has impaired the ability to deliver care. That's what is happening right now," Taveras concluded.
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Coronavirus Northern Ireland: Antrim Hospital 'Beyond Capacity' as Five Deaths and 727 New Cases of Covid-19 Confirmedhttps://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-northern-ireland-antrim-hospital-beyond-capacity-as-five-deaths-and-727-new-cases-of-covid-19-confirmed-39667830.htmlAntrim Area Hospital is "operating beyond capacity" with 27 sick patients awaiting admission, the Northern Trust has warned.
Patients were on Monday evening asked not to attend the hospital's emergency department unless urgent medical care was requited.
The warning came as the Trust warned Northern Ireland is "in the midst of the second Covid surge" with the hospital taking care of very ill patients.
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said it was "extremely busy" on Monday evening and asked for patience.
"We will prioritise calls to provide the quickest response to the most seriously ill or injured," it said.
Over the past seven days 6,828 people have tested positive for the virus, with 1,714 in the Belfast council area and 810 in Derry City and Strabane.
There are currently 342 Covid-19 inpatients in Northern Ireland's hospitals, with 39 in intensive care units.
Hospital bed occupancy currently stands at 96%, with 9 intensive care unit beds remaining free.
In Northern Ireland's care homes there are currently 99 active Covid-19 outbreaks.
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Idaho Hospitals Near Capacity, May Send New Coronavirus Patients to Portland, Seattlehttps://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/10/idaho-hospitals-near-capacity-may-send-new-coronavirus-patients-to-portland-seattle.htmlCOEUR D’ALENE, Idaho. — People with COVID-19 in Northern Idaho soon may have to be sent to Portland or Seattle, 400 miles away, because the region’s hospitals are nearing capacity. Kootenai Health hospital said in a statement Wednesday that their hospital is at 99% capacity for patients. The facility is also short-staffed, as demand for nurses grows with the rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, the statement said.
https://www.kh.org/regional-hospitals-reach-full-capacity/“Because all regional hospitals are experiencing the same situation, there will be limited opportunities to transfer patients to other facilities once at capacity,” the hospital said. “If there is no room available, Kootenai Health is currently looking at hospitals in Seattle or Portland to find space to transfer patients, but it is very limited.”As of Wednesday morning, Kootenai Health, based in Coeur D’Alene, had 31 COVID-19 inpatients and 11 required critical care. Chief Physician Executive Karen Cabell told KREM the hospital nearing capacity at its current levels is “unprecedented.”
Kootenai Health will not turn anybody away, but there may be long wait times and patients might receive treatment in different locations such as the waiting room, Cabell said.
In the southern Idaho city of Twin Falls, St. Luke’s Hospital has had to cancel all elective surgery for the month to accommodate an influx of COVID-19 patients. One in every four patients there is sick with COVID-19.
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Hospitals are Full But Some Parts of Idaho Refuse Mask Ruleshttps://omaha.com/news/national/hospitals-are-full-but-some-parts-of-idaho-refuse-mask-rules/article_212901df-c55e-5d9c-b937-4a27a0a638e8.htmlBOISE, Idaho (AP) — Moments after hearing an Idaho hospital was overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients and looking at sending people as far away as Seattle for care, members of a regional health department board voted Thursday to repeal a local mask mandate.
... the board voted 4-3 to end the mask mandate.
Board members overseeing the operations of Idaho’s public health districts are appointed by county commissioners and not required to have any medical experience.Board member Walt Kirby said he was giving up on the idea of controlling the spread of coronavirus.
“I personally do not care whether anybody wears a mask or not. If they want to be dumb enough to walk around and expose themselves and others, that's fine with me,” Kirby said. “Nobody's wearing the damned mask anyway. ... I'm sitting back and watching them catch it and die. Hopefully I'll live through it.”
Another member, Allen Banks, denied COVID-19 exists.“Something's making these people sick, and I'm pretty sure that it's not coronavirus, so the question that you should be asking is, 'What's making them sick?'” he told the medical professionals who testified.
Similar scenes — with doctors and nurses asking officials for help, only to be met with reluctance or even open skepticism — have played out across the conservative state. Idaho is sixth in the nation for new coronavirus cases per capita, with the average number of confirmed cases increasing by more than 55% every day over the past two weeks.
Still, Republican Gov. Brad Little has declined to issue a statewide mask mandate or limit crowd sizes beyond requiring social distancing at large events and in businesses, which is seldom enforced. Instead, Little has left it up to local health departments and school districts to make the tough decisions that sometimes come with blowback from the public.
In central Idaho, Adams County commissioners have approved a resolution rescinding all orders, recommendations and restrictions related to COVID-19--------------------------------
... and it's only October