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(SPRINGFIELD, Mo.) The Springfield, Missouri, health department is requesting funding for an alternate COVID-19 care site in response to a spike in infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks, health officials announced Wednesday.
Several local health facilities and hospitals jointly requested the alternative care site funding, which would include money for more beds, staff and antibody testing. One of those facilities was Springfield-based Mercy Hospital, which had so many hospitalized COVID patients last week that it had to call in backup ventilators from other hospitals in its network when it ran out.
The increase in severe illness is taxing the health system and sick patients are expected to outpace hospital capacity, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Resources at area hospitals are being strained by surge in new COVID-19 cases. Healthcare leaders from regional hospitals and the Springfield-Greene County Health Department are discussing funding options for the creation of an alternate care site to treat COVID-19 patients due to a rapid surge in new cases. According to the local health department, the surge in cases is largely a result of the area s low vaccination rate and the fast-spreading Delta variant - which is now the main variant in Missouri.
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On Wednesday, Springfield leaders implored the state for funds to create an “alternate care site” so local hospitals aren’t overrun amid the surge of COVID-19 in Southwest Missouri.
On Thursday Gov. Mike Parson was in Springfield to sign into law the state’s new gas tax and infrastructure plan.
He told the News-Leader he couldn’t commit to state funding for the site but that “we’re in the process of kind of going through that now” and that the state will “for the most part probably” fulfill the request.
Parson claimed his administration had only been notified five minutes before the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, Greene County Office of Emergency Management, CoxHealth and Mercy held a joint press conference announcing their request Wednesday.