The weekly update of local hospital bed usage shows another decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The total of adult beds used by COVID-19 patients at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center and Lovelace Regional Hospital dropped by 21 to 180 for the seven-day period of Dec. 18 to Dec. 24 compared to the previous seven-day period.
Meanwhile, intensive care unit (ICU) beds occupied by COVID-19 patients at the two facilities during that reporting period went down by 5 to a total of 79, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Those numbers meant that about 36.5% of all adult in-patients beds available in the two hospitals were occupied by COVID-19 patients. ENMMC had 138 adult beds used by confirmed COVID-19 patients during the seven-day period, while Lovelace had 42. In-patient adult beds available at the two locations totaled 493, according to the federal report.