95% of Georgia’s ICU beds are now occupied amid COVID-19 surge

ATLANTA — Over 95% of the beds in Georgia intensive care units are now in use, according to the Georgia Department of Health.

On Saturday, the department reported that 95.1% of ICU beds across the state are now occupied.

Of the state’s 14 regions, five were over capacity in the ICU. The region encompassing Columbus in west Georgia was the most overcrowded, with ICU beds at 115.4% capacity. The region in middle Georgia that stretches from north of Griffin down south of Warner Robins was at 111.2% capacity.

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The region of west Georgia stretching from Rome south to Newnan is at 106.7% capacity. The regions of far southwest and far southeast Georgia were just over 100% capacity.

There are currently 5,893 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Georgia, which is seeing the highest rates of hospitalization since the pandemic began. Just over 34% of patients being treated at hospitals in Georgia were COVID-19 patients.

As of Sept. 4, 96% of the COVID-19 patients being treated in the Wellstar Health System who were in the intensive care unit were unvaccinated. Only seven vaccinated patients were on ventilators compared to 114 unvaccinated patients.

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Northeast Georgia Medical System was reporting that 94% of the COVID-19 patients in critical care were unvaccinated. Phoebe Putney Health System in south Georgia reported that 88% of their COVID-19 patients are not vaccinated.

Georgia does not release the data on new cases of COVID-19 on the weekends. Friday saw the third-highest total of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began with 9,119 reported.

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More children are currently being diagnosed with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. Around 2,000 children a day are testing positive for the virus.

On Saturday, all three of Atlanta’s major children’s hospitals had wait times of over two hours.

COVID-19 patients pushing Children’s Healthcare hospitals to capacity

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