North Alabama ICU beds not currently at risk

North Alabama ICU beds not currently at risk

Sd -- waay31news.

Right now, if you're from montgomery and you need an icu bed, you're in trouble.

If you're from central alabama and you need an icu bed, you may not be able to get one because our health care system has been maxed out.

A dire message from the mayor of montgomery.

Mayor steven reed says they are over capacity by three people right now with the potential for that to grow.

As our cases continue to increase, we wanted to see if north alabama could be in a similar situation any time soon.

Waay 31's will robinson-smith is live outside of huntsville hospital.

He spoke with medical experts about our risk now and in the near future.

We spoke with hospitals across north alabama that are seeing a sizable number of cases.

Experts say right now we don't need to worry, but say that's no reason to get complacent.

Are we there yet?

No.

But as you mentioned, there is a point of, if the infections continue to escalate, that that will become a concern.

Helen keller hospital president kyle buchanan says it's not time to sound the alarm.

When the outbreak started, his hospital expanded its capactity to house coronavirus patients from 12 to around 40.

Buchanan say the number they've treated has fluxuated over the weeks, at one point reaching a high of 18 patients.

We hit that number about four week ago and then saw a dramatic decrease in volume and as of about 10-12 days ago, we saw that begin to pick back up again to a point where we are hovering around 12 today and anticipate that to go up.

Right now, the shoals is sitting at more than 620 cases.

On may 1, there were only 161 cases in those counties.

Buchanan says that's an important trend to watch.

If we continue to see three- or four-fold increases, we will come to a point where we have to make some of those tough decisions and think about our resources and make sure we've got what we need to take care of our patients.

Dr. karen landers with the alabama department of public health says it's important for all hospitals to keep a close eye on how many cases.

As we reopen, we continue to carefully monitor our numbers so that hospitals can maintain capacity and be able to treat the patients as they come into the hospital.

And while places like marshall and franklin counties are seeing an increase in cases, experts say right now it's too early to say how reopening has impacted the cases.

We absolutely want to support our local businesses, we absolutely want to get back to work as much as possible, we just want to make sure we're safe in how we're doing it, such that we never get to the point where we have a situation in which our local hospitals are overrun with patients.

We also reached out to marshall county medical center.

They say they're also not seeing a strain on their bed capacity, but that they're continuing to watch the numbers to see if there is a shift coming.

Reporting live in huntsville, will robinson-smith, waay 31 news.