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NC ranks in top 10 for inpatient COVID numbers

Less than a quarter of all hospital beds in North Carolina remain available, according to the most recent information from the North Carolina DHHS.

Posted Updated

By
Ali Ingersoll
, WRAL investigative data journalist
RALEIGH, N.C. — Less than a quarter of all hospital beds in North Carolina remain available, according to the most recent information from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide, the state is faring pretty well, though it does rank in the top 10 for the total number of inpatient beds at hospitals being used for COVID-19 patients.

California tops the list, with more than 30,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, according to federal data released last week. North Carolina, which is much smaller in geographic size and population, has more than 4,100 people in hospitals with coronavirus, making it ninth in the nation.

That means 22 percent of everyone hospitalized in North Carolina has COVID-19, the data shows.

On average, North Carolina and its surrounding states – Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia – are admitting 421 new coronavirus patients daily. Regionally, Georgia has the most, with 750 people admitted in a single day.

In the Peach State, 50% of intensive care beds are occupied with a COVID-19 patient. That number is lower in North Carolina, at 37 percent. Across the five states, about a third of all intensive care beds have COVID-19 patients occupying them.

Only seven of the hospitals in North Carolina reported data to the government said they're experiencing a staffing shortage – that's 6 percent of all hospitals in the state. While Georgia has 40 hospitals reporting shortages, its rate isn't as high as South Carolina, which reported 27 hospitals, or 32 percent, with shortages.

It's important to note that 38 hospitals in Tennessee, which has a 23% critical staffing shortage, didn’t fill out the section of the federal survey on staffing. Similarly, 16 hospitals in Georgia failed to report, so numbers for those states may not reflect the actual situations taking place there.

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