Bacon’s Rebellion ascertains “new” hospitalizations by calculating the change in the “Total Hospitalizations” figure published by the Virginia Department of Health from one day to the next.
Here, according to this morning’s Virginia Department of Health (VDH) dashboard, is an up-to-date look at new COVID-19 hospitalizations. (As always, we must be wary of weekend reporting lags, but VDH and Virginia hospitals seem to have tightened up their reporting and compiling these days, so the lag is not as pronounced as it once was.) Bottom line: The number of new hospitalizations yesterday fell to 72 from 105 the day before.
Regarding key indices on Virginia hospital capacity, we get these numbers from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association:
COVID-19 patient count (confirmed and tests pending): 1,436 Saturday, up 31
ICUs in use: 387, up 30
Ventilators in use: 217, down six
Beds available: 5,320
Hospitals experiencing difficulty replenishing PPEs: two
Nearly all hospitals have ample excess capacity to handle COVID-19 patients. Meanwhile, Governor Northam, who does not trust hospitals to manage their own patient loads, has extended his ban on elective procedures until the end of the month. Thirty thousand Virginia healthcare practitioners are out of work, and hospitals are losing millions of dollars in revenue every day. I can hardly wait to see the bill for the bail-out!
— JAB
