Former Medicare official warns against overconfidence in US hospital capacity
Communities in the United States may be getting overconfident in their ability to accommodate Covid-19 patients in hospitals, the former acting head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has warned.
Intensive care units need higher capacity than many people realize, former CMS acting director Andy Slavitt told CNN on Thursday night.
“Once you get to about 70 to 75% of ICU bed capacity, because of how long it takes for a case to turn into hospitalization, you will quickly run out of hospital capacity,” Slavitt says. “You’ll be able to see it coming, but you might not see it until it’s too late.”
Slavitt said the economy could reopen safely — but only if there is enough testing to address hot spots.
“Nothing magic happened while we were staying home,” Slavitt says. “It’s not like the virus got less contagious or less deadly.”
CNN
