One in every 84 people in Alaska was diagnosed with COVID-19 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Officials say the COVID surge is straining the state's limited health care system, citing an example where a medical team had to choose which of two critically ill COVID-19 patients would get to use a single specialized dialysis machine. According to The Wall Street Journal, the patient that had to wait for the machine died.
The emergency declaration — which covers three facilities that had already announced emergency protocols — was activated because of scarce medical resources at some facilities, insufficient staff and difficulty transferring patients because of insufficient bed availability. Other factors include limited renal replacement therapy and oxygen supplies.
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"The move to Crisis Standards of Care is not something we take lightly," Fairbanks Chief Medical Officer Dr. Angelique Ramirez announce in a statement.
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"This is in response to a very serious surge of COVID in our community."
The declaration covers the state's largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, the other two hospitals in Anchorage, and facilities across the country's biggest though sparsely populated state.
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"Today's action recognizes that Alaska has an interconnected and interdependent health care system, requiring the need for activation of the state's decision-making framework. That framework includes a progression of conventional, contingency and crisis standards," the state health department announced in a statement declaring the activation.
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"I want to stress that our health care facilities in Alaska remain open and able to care for patients. Alaskans who need medical care should not delay seeking it, even during these difficult times," Adam Crum, the state's health commissioner, stated.
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In the meantime, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, which was covered by the state's announcement, on Friday activated its own policy because of a lack of beds, staff, and monoclonal antibody treatments, along with the inability to transfer patients.
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The move came the same day the state recorded 1,044 new cases, 108 of them in the Fairbanks area.
The hospital explained that 35% of its patients on Saturday were being treated for COVID-19.
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Over the seven days through Saturday, Alaska saw the highest COVID case rate per 100,000 people in the country — almost twice that of West Virginia, the state with the next closest case rate.
As the case count increases, hospitals in Alaska, which has a population of 733,391, simply have 1.8 ICU beds per 10,000 people.
Doctors are being forced to choose whether or not to accept critically ill patients as resources remain limited.
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