Nov. 19—Oklahoma City area hospitals continue to report record-high numbers of COVID-19 patients and many are coming from outside the metro.

As coronavirus cases continue to surge across Oklahoma, large metro hospitals in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa are reporting they are at or near capacity in regard to intensive care unit beds.

Oklahoma reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 infections and 26 deaths from the virus on Wednesday.

The state also reported 1,381 hospitalizations related to COVID-19, down slightly from Tuesday’s record high. Nearly 400 of those patients are in intensive care.

“We are struggling to keep up and there’s no end in sight,” said one Oklahoma City hospital administrator. “Patients just keep coming from all over.”

The surge at metro hospitals coincides with rapid community spread in some of Oklahoma’s most rural areas.

Data shows places with the most new cases per capita in the past week are rural areas like Okfuskee, Woodward and Texas counties. In Texas County, one in every nine people has contracted the virus. While urban areas like

While urban areas like Oklahoma and Tulsa counties have more total cases, the rural areas have higher case rates.

Hospitals in many rural areas of the state have limited numbers of ICU beds, forcing them to send patients sometimes hours away to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or to other metros outside the state such as Wichita, Amarillo or Dallas.

David Kendrick, the principal investigator and CEO of MyHealth Access Network, says patients from rural areas are filling up metro hospitals and rapid spread aligns with cities without a mask mandate.

On November 12, Kendrick showed data in a weekly briefing that indicates 62% of COVID-19 hospital patients came from cities without a mask mandate in place. Only 38% of COVID-19 patients came from a city or community with a mask mandate in place.

“(ICU beds) are being filled by people coming in from communities without a masking ordinance by a factor of 2-1 almost,” Kendrick said. “Cities without a masking policy are contributing more patients to occupy these hospital beds, even beds far away from where they live.”

Kendrick said that while most rural hospitals are capable of handling COVID-19 patients, when patients need intensive care hospitals are often forced to transfer them to a more equipped metro hospital.

“As we might expect, a lot of our highest acuity patients are in our most comprehensive care facilities, which tend to be located in urban centers,” Kendrick said. “It’s appropriate that those centers get transfers and really the sickest of the sick from rural communities. There aren’t quite as many ICU beds to escalate to if that’s necessary.”

In early September, the rate of new infections per capita started climbing quickly in the country’s most rural counties reaching what are now record levels — significantly higher than what is being seen in the major urban areas, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a national report of hospital preparedness, Oklahoma was found to have an average of .34 ICU hospital beds and 2.39 certified physicians per 1,000 residents and that estimates show Oklahoma’s state-wide ICU capacity is hovering around 75% full.

To help slow the spread, Mercy Hospital and St. Anthony Hospital announced changes to visitation policies on Wednesday.

Integris Baptist Medical Center and OU Medicine both announced they had exceeded capacity for ICU beds.

The latest White House COVID-19 report for Oklahoma said increases from the past two weeks correlate with Halloween and related activities. “The spread in Oklahoma

“The spread in Oklahoma is exponential and unyielding, with hospitalizations increasing week over week and reported limited bed availability,” the report reads. “Serious messaging and action are needed from state leadership.”