Impact of multiple waves of COVID-19 on healthcare networks in the United States

• Main Authors: Hassan, E.M (Author), Mahmoud, H.N (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2021
• Subjects: adult; Article; coronavirus disease 2019; COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; disease predisposition; epidemiology; health care; health care access; health care delivery; health care facility; health care policy; Health Facilities; health impact assessment; Health Policy; hospital; hospital bed capacity; hospital patient; hospitalization; Hospitalization; Hospitals; human; Humans; medical service; middle aged; Models, Statistical; pandemic; Pandemics; pathogenicity; risk factor; SARS-CoV-2; statistical model; United States
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 The risk of overwhelming hospitals from multiple waves of COVID-19 is yet to be quantified. Here, we investigate the impact of different scenarios of releasing strong measures implemented around the U.S. on COVID-19 hospitalized cases and the risk of overwhelming the hospitals while considering resources at the county level. We show that multiple waves might cause an unprecedented impact on the hospitals if an increasing number of the population becomes susceptible and/or if the various protective measures are discontinued. Furthermore, we explore the ability of different mitigation strategies in providing considerable relief to hospitals. The results can help planners, policymakers, and state officials decide on additional resources required and when to return to normalcy. © 2021 Hassan, Mahmoud. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.