Over 900 Mayo Clinic Staffers Diagnosed With COVID-19 In Past Two Weeks

As the pandemic lives on, it’s causing chaos in America’s healthcare system. More than 900 staff members of the Midwest Mayo Clinic system have tested positive for the novel COVID-19 within the past two weeks.

A Kelley Luckstein told CNN, “Our staff is being infected mostly due to community spread (93% of staff infections), and this impacts our ability to care for patients,” Luckstein wrote in a Wednesday email.

As a result, across the Midwest, Mayo Clinics–which include clinics, hospitals, and other health care facilities that provide services to patients in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin–has around 1,500 employees with work limitations due to staffers being exposed or diagnosed with COVID-19.

The Midwest struggles during the second round of COVID-19 spikes, causing the Minnesota Governor to place new safety measures to help lessen the spread. And Wisconsin’s Governor has issued a state of emergency.

Now that Iowa is in the path of COVID-19, its Governor Kim Reynolds has given in to her previous resistance to mandate mask by announcing an order that requires residents to wear them if they are inside. The state’s hospitals are under extreme pressure due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.

“There are three things you need to take care of any patient,” Dr. Amy Williams, the executive dean of the Mayo Clinic practice, said during last week’s coronavirus update. “Space, supplies, and staff. And what we are most worried about is staff.” According to Williams, staffers are impacted the most by COVID-19 and urges Americans to continue taking extra precautions as the virus lingers.

“We’re doing this because we care about our communities,” Williams said in the update. “We don’t want families to be sick. We don’t want families to lose loved ones. We want everyone to be safe. We will get through this, but we need to be safe, we need to protect each other.”

Last week in the northwest part of Wisconsin, the Mayo Clinic Health System reached its full capacity. “The public urgently needs to treat COVID-19 as the health emergency it is to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed,” the health system said in last week’s statement.

Half of the ICU beds were filled by patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the clinic stated that patients diagnosed with the virus have longer stays compared to those that don’t.

“While we are temporarily deferring elective procedures in order to free up beds for COVID-19 patients, the public needs to understand we continue to care for other patient populations in addition to COVID-19 patients — we remain open for trauma, emergency care, and urgent care needs while also caring for COVID-19 patients.”
“We need your help, and we need it now.”

For now, Rochester, Minnesota, will increase its ICU capacity to assist the spike in patients; experts believe hospitalization rates will continue to increase over the next two to four weeks.