Here & Now

Wisconsin Hospitals Struggle with Omicron Deluge

Frederica Freyberg:

As Omicron crushes the state, the cavalry is on the way, literally. Governor Tony Evers has called in the National Guard to help hospitals and nursing homes as COVID-19 case counts continue to hit pandemic highs. Latest numbers show a seven-day average of 10,985 positive cases in Wisconsin, with hospital capacity on the brink. Soldier nurses, testing masks and vaccine clinics all being deployed to try to counter the crush. We’re joined now by Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake for more. Thanks very much for being here.

Karen Timberlake:

You’re welcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is this what an all-out mitigation push against Omicron looks like?

Karen Timberlake:

This is part of the strategy we’ve been using from the very beginning of the pandemic, which is to match the moment with the resources that are needed to make sure that Wisconsinites have access to the tests that they need, the vaccinations that they need and certainly the medical care that they need. Our National Guard has been an amazing partner with us from the very beginning of the pandemic. They did some of our first testing that was done out in the community. They’ve given hundreds of thousands of vaccines at this point. And now we are asking them to step up and help us build capacity in our health care system by serving in our nursing homes as temporary nurse aides and certified nursing assistants.

Frederica Freyberg:

How does the guard serving in nursing homes help the hospitals?

Karen Timberlake:

Yep. So what we know is we have numbers of patients who are in hospitals today ready to be discharged. They no longer need a hospital level of care, thankfully, but they’re not quite ready to go home. And so some of them may need some care in a post-acute care setting. What we know is that our nursing homes, just like our hospitals, have been experiencing real staffing shortages due to the pandemic and so by deploying the National Guard in nursing homes, we actually create more capacity in those nursing homes. We allow hospitals to discharge patients who don’t need to be in the hospital any longer and then we improve hospital capacity for that really critical care that does need to be provided in a hospital setting.

Frederica Freyberg:

Can we catch up to Omicron at this point?

Karen Timberlake:

Good question. What we all can do is keep ourselves safe and keep our family members safe and try to avoid catching Omicron to the very greatest extent that we can. I know we’re in this kind of push/pull of isn’t it a less serious illness than Delta was or than original COVID was. The answer to that question is if you’re fully vaccinated and you’ve gotten your booster shot, all the national data is showing us that you will do very well if you contract Omicron. If you are not vaccinated, you will have a tough time. And it is those unvaccinated people that we are seeing in our hospitals and that are really making it challenging for people who need other kinds of care to get that care. So the way we catch up to Omicron, the way we get ahead of it, is by making sure that we all do what we can to get vaccinated, get boosted, wear a good-fitting mask and just try to stay safe.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because again what is the current situation with cases and hospitalizations?

Karen Timberlake:

Right. The current situation with cases is that we’re at a record high in our seven-day average. We continue to see cases rising at a very, very steep rate. We know that hospitalizations also are at are a record level. And so the fact that we have more than 2200 people today in the hospital with COVID, including hundreds — more than 400 people in the ICU, means we have fewer than 5% of hospital beds of any kind across our state that are available. So we know that people continue to need other kinds of medical care and medical treatment and that is just getting harder and harder for our hospitals to provide. So we should be taking care of ourselves for our own sakes and for the sake of our health care system.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, the state is deploying, I understand, testing capacity across the state, but is there enough testing available and enough capacity there to deliver timely results?

Karen Timberlake:

We have fantastic testing capacity across the state. With that said, we’ve also seen about a 50% growth in the number of cases that we are processing in any given week since just early November. So just in the last, you know, four to six weeks or so, testing has gone up by about 50%. So like any other system that will put some strain on our lab capacity and on our result time frames. But what I can assure people is if you go to our website and you look at the community testing link, you will find lots of options. Check your local pharmacy. Check with your local public health department. Testing is available. You may have to do a little research. But testing is available. And results are also available still typically within about two to three days.

Frederica Freyberg:

The CDC recommends high-quality masks and your agency I understand has a stockpile of those. Who can get them and are there enough of those?

Karen Timberlake:

We have just recently done a survey with our local public health partners and with our county emergency management personnel to make sure that some of our most vulnerable and critical settings across the state are able to access those masks. So that can be long-term care settings, that can be schools, that can be afterschool providers. We really want to make sure that people who don’t have easy access to a high-quality mask can get one from those state supplies and I’d encourage people to check in with local public health and with county emergency management for those more local plans.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there, but thank you very much for your information, Secretary Karen Timberlake.

Karen Timberlake:

You’re welcome.