Greater Minnesota hospitals struggle to keep up with COVID

Oct. 8, 2021

The intensive care unit at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd has 10 beds. Currently, they're all full. Nine of the patients have COVID, and eight of those are on ventilators — one has been for the past 23 days.

Across greater Minnesota, hospitals are struggling to keep up with demand amid the latest COVID-19 surge. Dr. Greg Davis directs the ICU at St. Joseph's and says they're holding critically ill patients in the emergency department until an ICU opening can be found.

"There's a shortage of ICU beds around the state. So we sort of co-op and transfer patients around to wherever there's a bed open — if there's a bed open."

Davis says the solution isn't as simple as opening more ICU beds, since they require specialized equipment and trained staff.

Crow Wing County's COVID vaccination rate continues to lag behind the statewide average. Davis says eight of the nine COVID patients in the ICU were unvaccinated.

The number of active COVID cases in the state continues to rise and now tops 25,000 for the first time since last December.