With critical care beds in Cobb County in critically low supply, and the delta variant of COVID-19 rampant in the county, Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Lisa Cupid signed a Declaration of Emergency, to remain in effect for 30 days.

Read the Declaration of Emergency by following this link.

According to the news release announcing the action, the declaration allows the county to put an Emergency Operations Plan into effect.

“Public health officials are urging us to do whatever we can to encourage people to get the COVID vaccine and wear masks while near other people,” Chairwoman Cupid said. “This declaration will open the doors to provide assistance to others in the county who need it and highlight the critical stress this surge has put on our local healthcare facilities.”

What is an Emergency Operations Plan?

According to the county’s news release:

The declaration also activates the county’s Emergency Operations Plan which will allow resources to be funneled to local hospitals, state agencies, or others that may have a critical need for equipment and supplies. The county’s Emergency Management Agency used federal assistance money to stockpile supplies that would be needed should the pandemic persist. Requests for equipment and assistance have already come in.

How bad is it?

The latest figures released on hospital beds for Region N, which includes Cobb County, indicates there are 1,240 general inpatient beds in use out of 1,330 total beds, or 93.23 percent of capacity is reached.

Even more seriously, the region has 184 ICU beds in use out of a total of 187, or 98.40 percent of capacity.

That means that across the entire region, which includes Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas, and Paulding counties, there are only three ICU beds available.

Region N has 221 ED beds in use out of 283 total beds, or 78.09 percent of capacity.

As for ventilator usage, Region N has 111 ventilators in use out of 157 total ventilators, or 70.70 percent of capacity.

With the delta variant rapidly spreading through the area, those figures are not good.