Several Hospitals Across the South Report Limited Oxygen Supplies

With the rise in Coronavirus cases, hospitals in the south are running low on oxygen supply. According to state health officials and hospital consultants, several hospitals here in South Carolina, as well as Florida, Texas and Louisiana are at risk of having to use their reserve supply or risk running out of oxygen imminently. According to Donna Cross, the senior director of facilities and construction at Premier, a health care performance improvement company, “what’s happening now is that hospitals are running down to about 10-20%, which is a one- to two-day supply on hand, before they’re getting backfilled.” Cross added.. “before the pandemic suppliers would let them get down to a refill level of 30-40% left in their tank, giving them a three- to five-day cushion of supply.”

On Saturday, Florida reported the highest Covid-19 hospitalization rate in the country with 75 patients per 100,000 residents in hospitals across the state according to data from Johns Hopkins University. On Friday, the state also reported a high when it comes to Covid-19 cases with 690.5 new cases per 100,000 people each day from August 20 to 26.