Amid a surge that has labeled the state a national coronavirus hotspot, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital could be seeing a plateau in incoming patients.
A team of analysts believes the Partners HealthCare network will not be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients after looking at data from their nine hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s, according to the Boston Globe.
The numbers show a potential plateau in COVID-positive patients, according the hospital's doctors and mathematicians. Their projections predict the hospital will have about 376 coronavirus patients per day through the weekend, the Globe reported, with about 170 of them in the ICU.
“A lot of people still believe we are in a worst-case scenario, and that’s actually not true,” said Dr. Peter Dunn, a vice president at Mass. General, told the Globe. “The curve is flattening even more and it is due to all the many community- and government-based efforts to minimize the spread.”
There are almost 40,000 people with coronavirus in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health reported Monday, and just over 1,800 deaths. Approximately 8% of the state’s ICU beds are currently occupied, state data shows, with 10% of all cases currently hospitalized.
The analysis comes after the president of Mass. General told NBC10 Boston that he was hopeful the state's coronavirus outbreak had reached its peak Sunday, despite the climbing death toll and total number of cases.
"I think there’s encouraging news at our hospital and around the state that although the numbers are increasing, they’re increasing more slowly and we’re hopeful that the peak is either here or will be here in the next few days." Dr. Peter Slavin said in an interview.
Experts at Mass. General said they don’t think the number of sick patients at its hospitals is likely to get worse, according to the Globe, but that doesn’t mean the hospitals aren’t in a challenging situation right now.
