GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Vidant Medical Center has reached full capacity, according to the hospital’s president, Brian Floyd.
Vidant leaders are doing what they can to make room for more patients. The emergency department lobby is now a place where nurses can care for patients. Physicians are also reviewing all elective surgeries to see which ones they can postpone.
Floyd said the Delta variant is making up the majority of COVID-19 cases they are seeing. He also said increases in COVID hospitalizations and those in critical need of non-COVID treatment are straining the hospital system.
Vidant is treating 123 people with COVID, 36 are in the Intensive Care Unit and 22 are on ventilators.
Floyd said the community can help stop the virus by wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
“Our hospitals are strained, and it requires a lot of resources to take care of COVID patients, and you’re hearing this same story across the country and were not immune to that here,” Floyd said Wednesday. “We have beds, we have resources for the public but our projections show continued surge of COVID patients over the coming weeks if there’s not a disruption to that.
The hospital is also limiting visitation. As of now, no visitors are allowing in the emergency department or the ER waiting rooms.
Across Vidant Health, more than 8,000 employees are fully vaccinated. As of Tuesday at Vidant Medical Center, 36 nurses were out due to COVID.