6 HMC Patients Being Actively Treated for COVID-19

Ten people are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 at Hilo Medical Center as of Tuesday, July 20.

HMC reported six of the 10 patients are active cases — two are in the intensive care unit with one on a ventilator, one in SPU, two in MED and one in PCU. The remaining four patients are considered recovered from the virus but are still hospitalized at HMC after 30 to 70 or days.

“All 10 patients affected by COVID are unvaccinated,” HMC officials stated in a Facebook post.

HMC officials continue to encourage people to get vaccinated to help prevent severe illness and hospitalization.

” Hilo Medical Center has only 11 ICU beds,” officials stated. “Our hospital is currently very full and our ER has been extremely busy.”

HMC’s emergency department has become busy beyond the regular traffic of patients and increase in travel and tourism to Hawai’i Island, pushing ED visits up to 150 per day.

There are increases in patient volume due to the uptick of community spread of COVID infections and the need for testing or to treat COVID symptoms.

Every COVID case or presumed case takes an incredible amount of staff time and resources.

The Department of Health reported 9 new cases with 203 active cases on the Big Island as of Wednesday, July 21. The DOH continues to report a spike in cases statewide.