KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Health provided an update on Tuesday in regards to the hospital beds situation in the state and the progress made with COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Dr. Lisa Piercey with the Tennesse Department of Health, the overall numbers have remained relatively stable but the percentage of COVID-19 patients in hospitals has changed.
On Sunday, 40% of ICU beds were COVID-19 patients and on Tuesday, the percentage has increased to 47%. This means that half of ICU beds in the state are COVID-19 patients.
TNDOH said that the uptick of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds is making difficult the availability of beds for critical patients that are non-COVID-19 related.
As for the vaccines, TNDOH said that as of Tuesday morning, the state has vaccinated 24,200 Tennesseans.
TNDOH has been administering the Pfizer vaccine since Thursday and the Moderna vaccine since Monday. They are anticipating an extra shipment of 40,000 Pfizer doses on Wednesday that will go to hospitals to ensure that they can finish the first phase of vaccination.
Officials believe that starting next week, they will receive 50,000 Pfizer vaccines and 40,000 Moderna vaccines on a weekly basis. In total, 90,000 vaccines weekly and 360,000 vaccines a month. Dr. Piercey emphasized that these are preliminary numbers.
TNDOH is still waiting for more information in regards to knowing if the doses they are receiving are the first doses or if the second doses are included in the shipments in order to organize the distribution of the doses.
Department of Health officials said that they will begin vaccinating in long term care facilities through pharmacy partners on December 28. This will reduce strain in hospitals and mortality within long term care facilities.