(The Center Square) – The leaders of four Oklahoma City hospitals said they have no inpatient beds and no intensive care unit beds, but Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said omicron variant COVID-19 cases could be declining.
Between four hospitals, 107 people were in emergency rooms waiting for a bed and there are 300 fewer beds than last year, chief medical officers (CMOs) at INTEGRIS Health, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City, OU Health and SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital wrote in a letter.
"Unfortunately, between our four health systems, we have hundreds of co-workers in quarantine or unable to come to work due to kids out of school and no available childcare," they wrote. "This has nearly crippled our already limited staff."
Stitt quoted ICU numbers across the state, which are at 270, he said.
"The peak number was at over 400 in January," he said, referring to last year.
Stitt said based on data he has seen from surrounding states, the number of cases may be close to the peak.
The omicron variant has lead to an increase in the number of cases. The state's seven-day rolling average for news cases was at 10,476, according to the Oklahoma Department of Health.
The hospital CMOs said they expect the number of cases to increase, at least for the next few weeks. They asked the public to go to the emergency department only if it is a true emergency. Violence against health care workers is at an all-time high, and the CMOs asked the public to be "patient and kind."
Stitt did not say he would call for a temporary state of emergency but said there are things the state could do.
"If there are things that we can waive, if there's bureaucracy, if there's things that the hospitals need, we will absolute look at those," Stitt said. "The backup option, ultimately would be bringing in the National Guard to help with the hospitals. I don't think we are at that point, yet."
via Oklahoma's Center Square News