Northern Arizona Healthcare Locations Remain Busy During Latest Surge Of COVID Cases

The COVID-19 virus is continuing to put a strain on health care facilities with Northern Arizona Healthcare. Chief Administrative Officer of Flagstaff Medical Center Josh Tinkle says room is tight. “With physical bed capacity we continue to struggle to create capacity for all of our patients and we’ve been limiting our elective surgeries for months now.” Officials say the vast majority who are being admitted for COVID-19 are unvaccinated patients. Tinkle adds the hospital’s mandatory vaccination requirement for employees will be in full effect by the end of the month. Tinkle says “our vaccination rate is well over 90-percent and less than two-percent of our total population didn’t get a vaccine or wasn’t granted an exception.” When the requirement was announced, Tinkle says the percentage of vaccine hesitant was 27-percent. As of Monday morning, there are 53 COVID positive cases at Flagstaff Medical Center and 28 at Verde Valley Medical Center. FMC officials say they have been busy daily for the past couple of months and it’s the busiest they have been since the summer. For vaccination and testing locations, log onto coconino.az.gov/covid19.