Beaufort Co. hospitals again report fewer patients being treated for COVID-19
Beaufort County hospitals have again reported a decline in the number of COVID-19 patients receiving treatment.
As of Thursday, there were 20 coronavirus patients at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, according to spokesperson Courtney McDermott. On Aug. 21 there had been 22. A week before, there were 27.
McDermott on Thursday said 10 patients were in the hospital’s 12-bed ICU, which can expand to 14 beds if need be. Six of those people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and were on ventilators. There are 34 ventilators at the medical center in all.
The Hilton Head Regional Healthcare system, meanwhile, was treating eight COVID-19 patients as of about 1 p.m. Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals.
That’s a slight decrease from Aug. 20, when the system had 10 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections.
Just one of the eight COVID-19 patients was in an ICU bed as of Thursday, wrote Tenet spokesperson Daisy Burroughs in a statement.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital and Hilton Head Regional Healthcare have not requested assistance from the S.C. Emergency Management Division in recent weeks, the spokespeople added.
Other hospitals, however, turned to the state for help in July amid a spike in COVID-19 admissions.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at one time in South Carolina peaked on July 23, when over 1,700 people were admitted, according to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control data. There have been small decreases in those daily numbers since.
As of Friday, DHEC said about 11.6% of the state’s 8,410 occupied inpatient beds - 979 people - were filled by COVID-19 patients. Over 140 of those people were on ventilators.
Almost 83% of all inpatient beds in South Carolina were in use Friday, DHEC data show.
Since the pandemic began, Beaufort County has recorded a total of 244 coronavirus hospitalizations, according to DHEC. The state agency also says 5.2% of the county’s cases have resulted in hospitalization.
