Atlanta Mayor: Intensive Care Units Are at ‘Full Capacity’

A sign about social distancing is seen at the entrance of The Container Store near Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia on March 20, 2020. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

The mayor of Georgia’s largest city said intensive care units are at “full capacity” amid the CCP virus pandemic.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said city hospitals still have hospital beds open but none in intensive care units (ICUs).

“The feedback I received in talking with an emergency room doctor, this is just information he’s provided to me, that while there are still beds available in our hospitals, that our ICU units across the city are at capacity,” the mayor told CBS 46.

“This is why we have gone a step further in asking people to please, stay at home.”

Neither the Atlanta mayor’s office nor the Fulton County Board of Health immediately returned requests for comment.

One reason the ICU units are full, Bottom noted, is because water damage cut down on the number of available beds at Grady Hospital.

Tests for hospital staff with flu-like symptoms wait to be analyzed for the CCP virus in New York City on March 24, 2020. (Misha Friedman/Getty Images)

Georgia reported a surge of hundreds of new cases Tuesday night, bringing the total to 1,097. Nearly one in three confirmed cases are hospitalized, a much higher percentage than most other states, while 38, or 3.4 percent, of those patients have died.

The overall U.S. fatality rate from the new disease is 1.4 percent.

Fulton County has 191 confirmed cases.

ICU units in other areas are also full, doctors said.

Dr. Steven Kitchen, chief medical officer at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, told reporters that the hospital’s three ICUs are full. A fourth unit was created with 10 beds reserved for patients who don’t have COVID-19 but that is full as well.

“We continue to see an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients in our community,” Kitchen said.

“We’re quickly approaching the point of maximum capacity,“ adding, ”We need a relief valve.”

Another new ICU is being created in a second building the hospital owns.

Dougherty County, where the hospital is located, has 101 confirmed cases. Across the Albany hospital and two others in other towns, Phoebe Putney was caring for 150 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday. Of those, 32 were in the hospital; all but one were at the hospital in Albany.