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R.I. ICUs tied for most crowded, says coronavirus website

Providence Journal - 9/12/2020

Rhode Island is tied with Alabama for the most crowded intensive-care units, according to a website that tracks state-by-state data related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Both states have 80% of their ICU beds occupied, according to a Friday update on covidexitstrategy.com, which is run by a nonpartisan group of public-health and crisis experts. That's the same website that Massachusetts uses to gather new-case and positive-testing data to decide which states' residents can travel in the Bay State without quarantining.

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Rhode Island Department of Health figures show that 85% of the state's ICU beds were occupied as of Friday, according to department spokesman Joseph Wendelken. Figures that are updated daily show that 146 of 171 "staffed ICU beds" were occupied Friday, Wendelken said in an email.

In a regular daily report on Friday, the department said that only eight of those ICU beds were taken by patients with COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the coronavirus.

As to the 171 available ICU beds, Wendelken noted, "There is some flexibility in this number."

He explained, "Hospitals are able to staff additional beds as needed. ... The state and hospitals have plans for additional surge levels."

Wendelken did not immediately reply to an email asking what is the total number of beds that could be staffed as ICU beds if needed.

pparker@providencejournal.com

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