Help Coming for NJ’s COVID-stressed Hospitals

With more than 6,000 patients in New Jersey hospitals either for or with COVID, the state's medical resources are again being strained.

Help is on the way.

According to multiple media sources, President Joe Biden will begin deploying federal medical teams to six states, including New Jersey.

Federal teams will focus primarily on COVID patients, freeing up remaining hospital staff to provide care to other patients.

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The first team to arrive in New Jersey will work out of University Hospital in Newark, which has seen a dramatic increase in patients either coming in with severe COVID symptoms, or testing positive while hospitalized for another ailment.

Like many New Jersey hospitals, University has also been dealing with staff shortages due to medical workers testing positive and needing to quarantine.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention talked about the strain on the nations hospital systems during Wednesdays COVID briefing. “The sudden and steep rise in cases due to omicron,” Walensky said, “Is resulting in unprecedented daily case counts, sickness, absenteeism and strains on our health care system.”

The teams are made up of members of the US military medical personnel, and the first deployments come a month after President Joe Biden first announced the mobilization.

It is not clear when the federal team will arrive in New Jersey, or if more will be coming.

The New Jersey Department of Health has been alerting of strained hospitals and staffing shortages on twitter and asking for help.

University Hospital is in Essex County, where new COVID cases have been rising and the CDC data tracker records nearly 600 new hospitalizations over the last seven days.

Similar increases in new cases and hospitalizations have been reported in neighboring Bergen, Hudson, Morris and Union counties.