OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — More than 1 out of every 4 hospital beds in Ocean County is occupied by a patient being treated for the coronavirus, according to the latest data.
Those numbers are highest at Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, where the latest federal data shows capacity at 100 percent and 10 percent of all beds filled with COVID-19 patients. Ocean Medical Center in Brick had the highest percentage of COVID-19 patients, with 43 percent of its beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the hospital at 87 percent of its bed capacity.
The federal government released new hospital-level data and NPR, using analysis from the University of Minnesota's COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project, built a tool that shows hospital-by-hospital information.
The data comes from the week of Dec. 4 to Dec. 11.
You can access the NPR tool here
At Ocean County hospitals, an average of 26 percent of all patients beds are currently being occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the data.
While there is no clear threshold, NPR cites hospital experts saying that anything above 10 percent is concerning and anything above 20 percent represents "extreme stress" for a hospital.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/amp/29149020/1-in-4-ocean-county-hospital-beds-occupied-by-covid-patients