New Mexico has started a waiting list for intensive care unit beds for the first time amid a COVID-19 surge and short supply of nurses, according to USA Today.
On Aug. 25, state health officials announced 770 new COVID-19 cases, 433 individuals hospitalized in New Mexico with COVID-19 and five deaths in New Mexico related to the virus. They also reported that 89.9 percent of COVID-19 cases and 96.7 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the state from Feb. 1 to Aug. 23 were among the unvaccinated.
New Mexico Health and Human Services Secretary David Scrase, MD, told the Las Cruces Sun-News and other media Aug. 25 that New Mexico's hospital network may have to to enact crisis standards of care in the near future, and about 50 people were waiting for intensive care beds at the same time that hospitals need more nurses.
"We are just running out of rooms," said Dr. Scrase, who is also acting secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health.
Dr. Scrase suggested an 85 percent vaccination rate could prevent a hospital crisis.
As of 6 a.m. ET Aug. 25, 69 percent of the population in New Mexico had received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC's data tracker.