Virus surge overwhelms hospitals in Cochise County

PHOENIX (AP) — A surge of COVID-19 cases is overwhelming hospitals in southeastern Arizona.

Cochise County said Wednesday that its hospitals were low on resources, struggling with nurse shortages and that patients without COVID-19 were facing long waits to be transferred to larger hospitals for higher levels of care.

Patients without COVID-19 are facing waits of 48 to 96 hours to be transferred to large hospitals in Tucson.

Earlier this week, hospital leaders and public health officials across Arizona pleaded for people to get vaccinated and take other precautions avoid spreading the coronavirus and not overwhelm the state’s health care system.

Many hospitals are crowded with virus patients as well as others being treated for non-COVID conditions.

On Thursday, Arizona reported 3,349 new COVID-19 cases and 75 deaths from the virus.

In all, 1,255,597 confirmed cases and 22,173 deaths from the virus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began.