TUCSON – (KVOA) Late last week, the Pima County Health Department moved the level of Coronavirus transmission in the community to high for the first time in more than nine months.
This designation comes as flu and RSV cases are on the rise and crowding hospitals.
“One night about a week and half ago, I admitted three severely ill COVID patients and I hadn’t seen three COVID patients in one shift for almost a year,” Pima County Supervisor Dr. Matt Heinz said.
Heinz tells News 4 Tucson at his hospital in Tucson, there are once again few open beds.
“We’re full,” he said. “We’re full at my facility, at basically all the facilities in Pima County, all the facilities throughout the state. Frankly, we’re looking for another solution like that hotline when there are no beds, we’re back to looking at that again.”
“Dr. Sandy Herron is a pediatrician at Tanque Verde Pediatrics. She said her office is seeing an unprecedented number of visits, kids with the flu, RSV and COVID-19.
“We haven’t seen numbers like we saw in November since pre-COVID when we had a really bad influenza year in our city, you know, just about three years,” Herron said.
The Pima County Health Department said flu cases are seven times higher right now than the five year average.
With RSV steadily increasing in kids since October, the county said at the moment the number of cases are eight times higher than the five year average.
“We’re tired, it’s concerning because kids are getting sick, it’s concerning because hospitals don’t have room,” Herron said.
“Put those masks on, okay,” Heinz said. “It’s important to make sure your vaccinations and boosters for COVID are up to date and if you’re sick, if you have a fever, don’t go out. Don’t go out and expose yourself to others.”
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