Cobb Reporter

Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital is overflowing with COVID-19 patients, with few beds available as the area experiences a record surge in infection rates.

"This morning, we had 70 patients in the emergency room, who had been admitted and were waiting for beds," chief medical officer Dr. Robert Jansen told Fox 5 Atlanta. "We had no beds available this morning. We were at 106% occupancy."

The growing backlog is forcing many emergency and post-surgical patients into longer waits for services, Jansen said.

"Some of them will wait 24 hours, as long as 24 hours, sometimes longer, for a bed upstairs," Jansen said. "We try, obviously, to move people as quickly as we can."

Throughout Georgia, approximately 87% of intensive care unit beds and 70% of emergency department beds are occupied, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported.

On top of the occupancy problem, many hospital staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus as well, Jansen said.

"Fortunately, our staff is vaccinated," Jansen said. "So, they're not as ill, which is a good thing. But, they're still out for 5 days to sometimes a little bit longer, and that makes it worse."

Many of the infected patients are referred to as "incidental," which means the patients were admitted due to reasons unrelated to COVID-19, then tested positive for the coronavirus during their stay, Fox 5 Atlanta reported

"It really isn't as simple as they came in, and they just happen to have COVID," Jansen said. "They're sick, or they wouldn't be in the hospital. When we see someone in the emergency room who just has COVID, we send them home."

Whenever a patient tests positive, they have to be immediately isolated, and all staff members attending to that patient have to wear personal protective equipment.

"We have to do the same precautions, the same type of care, the same potential complications, and the same treatments, frequently," Jansen said. "So, we still have to treat the COVID-19 infection as well as their underlying disease."