Hospital leaders in Morgan County say their nurses and doctors are working 60 hours a week to keep up with a covid surge hitting the North Alabama County hard.
Decatur Morgan Hospital President Kelli Powers updated the media Monday morning and said they saw many more deaths over the weekend and the majority of their inpatients are not vaccinated. Currently, there are 57 people being treated in the hospital for Covid.
“No one is vaccinated in the ICU, of the eight of them, seven are on the ventilator and we’ve had several deaths over the weekend. It’s a very sad situation,†Powers said.
At last check one third of Morgan County residents are vaccinated and they are seeing 100 positive cases every day.
“I guess I’m at the point of begging now, our staff is very exhausted and so are our physicians.â€
The new surge is hitting as the hospital is short-staffed, down dozens of nurses.
“We are still looking for nurses we are about 70 nurses down so we are looking for them. Our nurses are working overtime, 60 hours a week for some of the staff and it’s not healthy for them to keep doing that.â€
Powers continues to urge people to get vaccinated and wear masks. She says she is not sure how much longer they can maintain this level of stress on the health care system.
