Jennie Stuart

A surge in cases of the delta variant has prompted an unrelenting stream of COVID-19 patients at Jennie Stuart unlike ever before.

On Friday, there wasn't a single intensive care bed available in Christian County or within its 11-county region. In the majority of other areas, more than 95% of ICU beds were occupied.

As health care workers grapple with the pandemic’s most recent wave, a few things are clear: patients hospitalized with COVID are getting sick quicker, are younger than before and are mostly unvaccinated.

It's the first time in four months that the hospital's stress level due to the pandemic had been considered "low."

While the hospital's COVID-19 patient occupancy is the lowest it has been in two months, data suggests Jennie Stuart is still under stress from the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 hospitalizations at Jennie Stuart Medical Center have declined from a recent peak, but newly released federal data show the hospital has been under what health care experts consider "extreme stress."

From Jan. 8 to 14, the percentage of occupied ICU beds at Jennie Stuart was higher than any other time for which data is available.

During the most recent reporting week, Jennie Stuart's COVID-19 occupancy in the ICU and across the entire hospital reached dangerously high levels.

For the fourth day in a row, COVID-19 hospitalizations at Jennie Stuart have reached a record high.

For the week of Dec. 18 through 24, the hospital reached record highs for the total number of inpatient beds occupied by coronavirus patients and its overall proportion of COVID-19 patients.