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COVID Surge Has Forced Palm Beach Health Officials To Add More Emergency Beds

Dr. Raymond Golish, chief medical officer at JFK Medical Center, appears at Palm Beach County's COVID-19 press conference. August 8th, 2021
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Dr. Raymond Golish, chief medical officer at JFK Medical Center, appears at Palm Beach County's COVID-19 press conference. August 8th, 2021

At one of the busiest hospitals in Palm Beach County, staff are having to add more emergency room beds to keep up with the influx of COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Raymond Golish, the chief medical officer at JFK Medical Center, said he doesn’t see any sign of a downward trend in new virus cases.

"The vast majority of the patients ill enough to require admissions to the hospital needing oxygen and needing other treatments, including complex technologies to sustain their life, are unvaccinated," Golish said.

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Dr. Mazyar Rouhani, the emergency director at JFK Medical Center, said the department had to expand to 96 beds in order to accommodate more COVID patients — up from the usual 78 beds in the emergency department.

"The only way to decrease transmission is to get vaccinated," Rouhani said.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 99.99% of people who are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus have not had a breakthrough case that resulted in death or hospitalization. This fact was reiterated by Mayor Dave Kerner at the press conference.

Dr. Alina Alonso is the Palm Beach County director for the state Department of Health. She says 67% of the county's total population is now fully vaccinated — an increase from 61% just over a month ago. That includes more people 12 to 19 years old getting their shots.

"For children under 12 that cannot be vaccinated, I have parents asking me what they can do," said Alonso. "My suggestion is that they get everybody around that child vaccinated."

Health officials have opened a state-run testing and vaccine site in Palm Springs at the Mid County Senior Center. The Health Care District is also offering free, walk-up COVID-19 vaccinations Monday through Friday this week from 9 to 4 p.m. at the Lantana Clinic parking lot, at 1250 Southwinds Dr. in Lantana and the Lakeside Medical Center’s parking lot in Belle Glade.

The county had 790 confirmed new cases and the county's positivity rate was 16.44% as of Monday afternoon — the seven-day average is 16.03%.

Wilkine Brutus is the Palm Beach County Reporter for WLRN. The award-winning journalist produces stories on topics surrounding local news, culture, art, politics and current affairs. Contact Wilkine at wbrutus@wlrnnews.org
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