Number Of Patients More Than Doubles In Past Week

In the Shoals, Helen Keller Hospital s is seeing the largest number of coronavirus patients than ever before.

The back to school tab.

We want to turn our attention to the shoals now.

Tonight -- there are more than 27-hundred cases in the region.

Nearly 800 came within the past 2 weeks.

We learned helen keller hospital is seeing the largest number of coronavirus patients than ever before.

Waay31's breken terry is at the hospital and shows how many coronavirus patients are currently at the hospital.

Look live: right now helen keller hospital has 34 coronavirus patients here just one week ago they only had 12.

Buchanan- we've seen twice as much in patient activity we've adjusted to accomodate that demand but it's very concerning at this point.

Hospital president kyle buchanan told me there's a flexible coronavirus unit at helen keller.

It can expand and contract depending on the number of coronavirus patients.

He said it needed to expand it in the past week.

Buchanan- we're taking care of a lot of very sick covid patients if that doubles and triples again it will put a strain on our resources, but at this point we feel comfortable with how many we have in critical care.

Buchanan said even now there's room to expand.

But, he's hopeful we start to see the benefits of the states mandatory mask order.

Buchanan- we expect there will be a 14 time period where we will start to see the effects of that but were still working really hard to take care of the patients we realize will come through our er and we think that will increase before it decreases.

Look live tag: buchanan said the hospital has not had to transfer coronavirus patients to other hospitals and said their beds aren't full yet.

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We want to turn our attention to the sand mountain region now.

Tonight -- there are more than 46-hundred cases there.