ATL Standard

Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta is experiencing an overflow of COVID-19 patients with few beds available as Georgia, alongside the rest of the country, experiences a record surge in infection rates.

Hospitals across the United States are seeing record numbers of coronavirus cases amid the most recent surge caused by the omicron variant. Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital said the growing backlog is forcing many emergency and post-surgical patients into longer waits for services, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"This morning, we had 70 patients in the emergency room, who had been admitted and were waiting for beds," chief medical officer Dr. Robert Jansen told Fox 5 Atlanta. "We had no beds available this morning. We were at 106% occupancy."

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported that approximately 87% of intensive care unit beds and 70% of emergency department beds were full. On Jan. 25 alone, more than 5,000 patients with the coronavirus were hospitalized in Georgia, while inpatient beds in the metro Atlanta area were 94% full, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"Some of them will wait 24 hours, as long as 24 hours, sometimes longer, for a bed upstairs," Jansen said. "We try, obviously, to move people as quickly as we can. This is, without a doubt, the worst that we've had it."

Health officials reported that many of the growing cases are deemed "incidental," referring to patients admitted due to other medical issues who subsequently tested positive for the virus during treatment. These patients often need a greater level of care and extended stays at the hospital, Jansen said.

"It really isn't as simple as they came in, and they just happen to have COVID," Jansen said. "They're sick, or they wouldn't be in the hospital. When we see someone in the emergency room who just has COVID, we send them home."