REPEATED warnings by local health officials that the latest wave of the novel coronavirus ravaging the island could lead to a shortage of beds in public hospitals have become a painful and life-threatening reality for almost 30 people at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Reports reaching the Jamaica Observer are that the UHWI has run out of beds on its COVID-19 wards, leaving people who have been confirmed with the virus waiting in the Accident & Emergency Department to be admitted.

“We have allocated approximately 70 beds to serve patients who have been confirmed with the COVID-19-related illnesses, but at present all the beds are taken and we have a backlog of patients in the Accident & Emergency Department,” Kevin Allen, CEO of the UHWI told the Observer yesterday.

“My last report was that we had 27 cases in the emergency department waiting for beds for admission. The majority of these cases are confirmed as COVID-19-positive.

“Some of the patients are in isolation and we have to make do with tents that we have set up on the outside while we continue to treat and manage the patients that come to us,” added Allen.

On Monday, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton repeated an earlier warning from health officials that public hospitals were running out of beds to house COVID-19 patients and announced that field hospitals have been activated to increase the number of beds available.

At that time, Tufton indicated that as at last Sunday (August 8) six hospitals were in the red alert zone, which means that they had 84 per cent or greater bed occupancy, while four were in the amber alert zone with greater than 74 per cent of their beds being occupied.

Tufton noted that in addition to the facilities with more than 84 per cent of their bed capacity occupied were Cornwall Regional, Savanna-la-Mar, Port Antonio, St Ann’s Bay, Mandeville Regional, Princess Margaret, and Spanish Town hospitals.

Yesterday, Allen said, based on the pressure on the hospital for beds, the increase in the number of people needing hospitalisation is weighing down the medical staff.

“This is putting a tremendous strain on the clinical team — our doctors, our nurses, our allied support staff, radiologist, labs — but we are pushing through. We have our COVID-19 task force that is chaired by Dr [Carl] Bruce meeting three times per week, and as the numbers increase I suspect that we will have more frequent meetings,” said Allen.

“I want to use this opportunity to thank the brave men and women who serve this institution and continue to serve even under tremendously trying situations. I also want to use the opportunity to acknowledge the suppliers who, despite not being paid on time, continue to provide us with the much-needed supplies as we try to tackle the virus and to treat the patients,” Allen added as he appealed to Jamaicans to take the COVID-19 vaccine as it becomes available.

“When you look at the numbers we have more of our seniors [are] taking the vaccine. That is saying to me that the parties that they continue to keep, and other gatherings, the younger persons are taking the virus home to their older relatives, and those are the persons we are seeing in hospitals.

“I am going to use this opportunity to appeal to us, those of us who might be a little bit stronger and can ride out the virus, to think about others around us who might not be as strong and take them into consideration. Don’t be selfish. Remember those around you and see how best you can get the household to be fully vaccinated as a precaution to help us to fight this monster,” declared Allen.

He said the UHWI is striving to treat all its COVID-19 patients through a partnership involving its staff, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and private sector entities who offer support from time to time.

“We must take this virus seriously, and we must go and get ourselves fully vaccinated so that we have a fighting chance to defeat this virus,” said Allen.

In the latest COVID-19 numbers released yesterday by the health and wellness ministry, Jamaica recorded 334 new cases to bring the total number to 55,790 since March 2020. The island had 6,836 active cases. The island also recorded 13 more deaths on Tuesday to move the total COVID-19-related fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 1,254.

The ministry also reported that 345 COVID-19-positive people were hospitalised up to Tuesday with 69 being deemed moderately ill and 35 being critically ill.