Latest: Check Hospital Capacity In Middlesex Area

MIDDLESEX, NJ — The omicron coronavirus variant has quickly reached dominance in the United States as the holiday season gets into peak swing.

The highly-contagious variant will likely sicken many of the country's 40 million unvaccinated adults in the near future, and some will require hospitalization, President Joe Biden said Tuesday. The vaccinated, and particularly those who have been boosted, have better odds of not getting sick or only catching a mild illness.

“That will mean hospitals are going to get extremely stressed again, both in terms of equipment as well as personnel to care for those who get sick,” he said.

Biden directed the Pentagon to mobilize 1,000 additional military personnel to help staff local hospitals and expand capacity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will also deploy teams to provide additional hospital bed capacity.

Nationally, about 77 percent of inpatient beds were occupied as of Dec. 22, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About one out of every 10 beds are occupied by a COVID-19 patient.

State health officials in New Jersey reported to the federal government Dec. 22 that approximately 72 percent of inpatient beds and 47 percent of intensive care unit beds in hospitals across the state were occupied. Around 14 percent of inpatient beds and 12 percent of ICU beds statewide were filled by COVID-19 patients, they reported.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations remain well below the national peak of 124,000 patients in January 2021, when vaccines were scarce. A daily average of about 61,000 total patients were hospitalized with the virus between Dec. 13 and 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is up about 4.2 percent from the prior week.

However, the CDC projects that new COVID-19 hospital admissions will be somewhere between 6,300 and 18,400 patients per day by Jan. 7; the current seven-day average is about 7,800 daily admissions.

The latest hospitalization numbers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Middlesex County, included below, are current through Dec. 10, and represent a rolling seven-day average. Note that the figures for occupied hospital beds sometimes exceed 100 percent; this is because more than one patient sometimes occupies a bed over the course of a week.

Health experts have said that the share of a hospital's total beds devoted to coronavirus cases is key to understanding the strain on its resources. A share greater than 10 percent is said to be a cause of concern. When that share exceeds 20 percent, a hospital is said to be under extreme stress; and as the share approaches 50 percent, the stress is said to be immense.

Below are the latest figures for hospitals in Middlesex County.

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JFK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
65 JAMES STREET, EDISON

• All adult inpatient beds: 490.4
• Inpatient beds occupied: 318.6
• Inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 36
• Percent of inpatient beds used: 64.97%
• Percent of inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 7.34%
• All adult ICU beds: 64
• ICU beds occupied: 45.1
• ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 6.9
• Percent of ICU beds used: 70.47%
• Percent of ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 10.78%

PENN MEDICINE PRINCETON MEDICAL CENTER
ONE-FIVE PLAINSBORO ROAD, PLAINSBORO

• All adult inpatient beds: 231
• Inpatient beds occupied: 193.7
• Inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 10
• Percent of inpatient beds used: 83.85%
• Percent of inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 4.33%
• All adult ICU beds: 24
• ICU beds occupied: 20.6
• ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: N/A
• Percent of ICU beds used: 85.83%
• Percent of ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: N/A

RARITAN BAY MEDICAL CENTER
530 NEW BRUNSWICK AVE, PERTH AMBOY

• All adult inpatient beds: 254.3
• Inpatient beds occupied: 183.4
• Inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 29.6
• Percent of inpatient beds used: 72.12%
• Percent of inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 11.64%
• All adult ICU beds: 68
• ICU beds occupied: 14.6
• ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 9.3
• Percent of ICU beds used: 21.47%
• Percent of ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 13.68%

ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
ONE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON PLACE, NEW BRUNSWICK

• All adult inpatient beds: 577
• Inpatient beds occupied: 502.6
• Inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 36.3
• Percent of inpatient beds used: 87.11%
• Percent of inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 6.29%
• All adult ICU beds: 101
• ICU beds occupied: 38
• ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 6.6
• Percent of ICU beds used: 37.62%
• Percent of ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 6.53%

SAINT PETER'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
254 EASTON AVE, NEW BRUNSWICK

• All adult inpatient beds: 328
• Inpatient beds occupied: 188.4
• Inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 30.7
• Percent of inpatient beds used: 57.44%
• Percent of inpatient beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: 9.36%
• All adult ICU beds: 28
• ICU beds occupied: 7
• ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: N/A
• Percent of ICU beds used: 25.00%
• Percent of ICU beds used by confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients: N/A

Editor’s note: This list was automatically generated using data compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The local hospitals included in the list are limited to those included in the government data, and the numbers reported by these hospitals to HHS have not been independently verified by Patch. Please report any errors or other feedback to [email protected].