The latest surge in coronavirus cases continues to hit new records, with more than 20,000 new cases reported Wednesday in North Carolina and more than a million cases for the day around the country.

There were almost 3,100 people in the hospital with COVID-19 in North Carolina Wednesday and more than 630 of those are in intensive care units, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The omicron variant, which spreads much faster than earlier variants, along with holiday gatherings and colder weather is to blame for the spike in new cases, public health officials say.

“Our ICU is very much at capacity,” said Dr. Linda Butler, chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at UNC Rex Healthcare. “It is a daily challenge” to keep beds open for people who may come in with emergencies like heart attacks and strokes, she said.

What You Need To Know

  • New daily coronavirus case numbers continue to hit records in North Carolina

  • Hospitals in the Triangle say hospital beds and ICUs are filling up with COVID patients

  • People who need a COVID test and are not having severe symptoms should not go to the emergency department, but instead go to a testing site or urgent care

  • Get more information on how and where to get tested from the N.C. DHHS

Hospitals around the Triangle are feeling the strain. Butler joined chief medical officers from WakeMed and Duke hospitals Thursday for a joint news conference about the capacity problems facing the area’s three big hospital systems.

“We are seeing a higher prevalence of COVID than we’ve ever seen before,” said Dr. Chris DeRienzo, system chief medical officer WakeMed Health & Hospitals.“We are seeing a higher prevalence of COVID than we’ve ever seen before,” said Dr. Chris DeRienzo, system chief medical officer WakeMed Health & Hospitals.

WakeMed has seen record numbers of patients in five of the last 10 days, he said. The hospital has gone back to treating people in the lobby as they did during the worst of the delta surge last fall, DeRienzo said.

“About 40% of the patients we’ve seen in the past week have had COVID-like symptoms,” he said. UNC Rex and Duke said they were seeing similar numbers in their emergency departments.

“If you have symptoms at this time, I would assume that is COVID,” said Lisa Pickett, chief medical officer at Duke University Hospital. 

Duke is once again considering setting up tents outside for COVID patients, Pickett said.

Representatives from all three hospitals said people who have mild or no coronavirus symptoms should not go to the emergency room just to get a coronavirus test. Only people with severe symptoms should be going to the emergency room, they said.

Not only are hospitals seeing more COVID patients, they’re also struggling with their own staff having to quarantine with the virus.

“We do have a significant number of people who are out as COVID positive,” Pickett said.

“People always think about the clinical, bedside folks,” she said. But they also have support staff getting sick. “It can really cause delays across the board.”

All three hospital systems said they had about 2% of their total workforce out sick.

“This is a different point in the pandemic,” Pickett said. There have been times earlier in the pandemic when staff members were getting very sick from the coronavirus, she said, but vaccines and booster shots are keeping people from getting the worst symptoms.

“Our staff is not becoming terribly ill, but they are out,” she said.

Vaccines and booster shots are keeping more people from ending up in the hospital or in intensive care units, representatives from the three hospital systems said.

“We have no vaccinated COVID patients on ventilators,” WakeMed’s DeRienzo said.