Hawaiʻi hospitals are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases and that includes those on the Big Island.
The island's COVID-19 positivity rate was 8% as of Monday, according to the state. A spokesperson for Hilo Medical Center on the east side of the island said their facility was “full” — only four beds out of 128 were available Friday.
The west side of the island is also facing a surge in cases.
The Conversation reached out to Judy Donovan, director of Marketing and Strategic Planning at Kona Community Hospital. Donovan said their facility was treating 10 patients for COVID-19, five of whom were in the intensive care unit.
Donovan said the Kona hospital was “critically-low” on staff, but they expect relief from the state within eight to 10 days. The state is supplying eight additional ventilators, but they are also in “critical” need of more respiratory therapists.
An emergency triage tent was set up last week to provide overflow space for up to 30 patients as a precaution.
"We believe that the majority of the influx will happen pretty badly over the next seven to 10 days. And then anecdotally we're hearing that the Delta variant peak can take up to eight weeks," she said. "I think maybe as a community we let our guards down a little bit because we had done such an excellent job of staying ahead of the first part of the coronavirus last year."
Back on the east side, Hilo Medical Center began enacting new visitor policies Monday. A patient may only have one visitor per day, and they must be vaccinated. There are exceptions for patients in end-of-life care, pediatrics, and OB-GYN.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 6, 2021.
