Phoebe official says hospital is creeping up to capacity… again

ALBANY, Ga. – COVID-19 cases are surging throughout the state and Dougherty County is no exception. Friday, the Department of Public Health is reporting that Dougherty County has 96 more positive coronavirus cases.

At the moment, Dougherty County is in the top ten for COVID-19 cases in Georgia. And the county’s main hospital, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany has had 37 new COVID-19 admissions since the start of July. Nine people were admitted to the hospital Thursday alone. Icu beds that were empty a few weeks ago are now being occupied.

“We still have some capacity with ICU and general beds but the hospital is quite full,” says medical director of emergency services Dr. James Black.

In late June, the hospital was celebrating having only 30 patients receiving treatment for critical COVID-19 symptoms, down from around 200.

One of Phoebe’s 458 COVID-19, recovered patients

But now, there are 52 COVID-19 patients in the hospital.

However, even with the current patients and potential cases as more people are testing positive for the virus, Dr. Black feels that Phoebe is prepared to handle what’s thrown their way.

“From a supply stand point we’ve done a great job of acquiring and having a nice staple of supplies that are available but again it wont take long for us to reach capacity, especially with the ICU beds.”

Dr. Black suggests Dougherty County was able to slow the transmission of the virus back in June because more people were adhering to social distancing recommendations. He says people should avoid going out more than what’s necessary.

“If you can maintain the social distancing as much as possible and only do what’s absolutely necessary, that’s the way we were able to slow the transmission and the progress earlier and we need to get back to those practices and rely on them.”