FORT SMITH, Ark – The number of hospital patients suffering from the COVID-19 coronavirus at Mercy Fort Smith is back up to a summertime peak and the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state is at an all-time, single-day high.
Sebastian County had the fourth highest number of new cases in the state Monday with 64 new cases.
Mercy Fort Smith currently is near its maximum capacity in the COVID Intensive Care Unit. The hospital on Rogers Avenue has 13 isolation rooms available in the ICU as well as 44 other beds available for medical surgery.
As reported last week by The Associated Press, Gov. Asa Hutchinson will be looking at hospitalization numbers to determine if more COVID restrictions will be put in place.
“The only thing that will trigger anything is that if we don’t have any hospital space to deal with,” Hutchinson said in a discussion Nov. 12 with the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and the Arkansas Municipal League broadcast live on Facebook. “Then you have to start making some very, very difficult decisions that you don’t want to have to make.”