900多梅奥诊所工作人员在中西部已经收缩新冠肺炎(新型冠状病毒肺炎)官员们说，过去两周，随着该地区病例激增。
医疗中心“非常担心”健康并且有足够的人来照顾病人卫生保健梅奥诊所的执行院长艾米·威廉姆斯博士在周二的一次新闻发布会上说，专业人员自己也感染了这种病毒，或者由于暴露而不得不被隔离。
官员们说，在过去的14天里，包括明尼苏达州和威斯康星州在内的中西部地区的905名梅奥诊所员工被诊断出患有新冠肺炎病。这一数字占大流行期间工作人员病例总数的30%以上。
威廉姆斯说，大部分暴露——约93%——发生在社区，而不是工作场所。
“这显示了这在我们的社区中有多么广泛的传播，以及让新冠肺炎在中西部的社区中有多么容易，”威廉姆斯说。
官员们说，在中西部地区，约1500名梅奥诊所的员工因接触新冠肺炎、诊断或不得不照顾生病的家人而受到工作限制。其中大约1000人在明尼苏达州罗切斯特的梅奥诊所。
凯雷姆·于切尔/法新社，通过盖蒂图像，文件
梅奥诊所的圣玛丽医院部分位于明尼苏达州罗切斯特，2020年9月29日。
官员们说，为了帮助解决中西部的人员短缺问题，梅奥诊所正在从最近退休的人员中招聘医疗保健人员，从其他地方(主要是亚利桑那州)引进工作人员，暂时将研究护士转移到患者护理角色，并减少选择性护理，以将工作人员重新部署到新冠肺炎患者身上。
根据COVID跟踪项目，明尼苏达州周三记录了创纪录的住院人数，为1706人。根据美国广播公司新闻周三晚上获得的一份内部健康和人类服务备忘录，与威斯康星州接壤的地区也报告说，医院的重症监护病床使用率超过85%。
住院人数预计只会在未来几周增加。威廉姆斯说，在准备阶段，位于罗彻斯特的梅奥诊所医院的圣玛丽校区正在增加医疗床位，以照顾有和没有新冠肺炎的病人。
“我们需要非常警惕，不要认为事情会稳定下来，”她说。
在该州病例和住院人数不断上升的情况下，州长蒂姆·瓦尔兹(Tim Walz)周三宣布了新的冠状病毒限制。
从周五晚上11点59分开始，在接下来的四周内，所有餐厅都将禁止亲自用餐。健身房和室内娱乐场所也将关闭。
禁止家庭以外的面对面社交聚会，婚礼和私人聚会也是如此。
“我们正处于一个转折点，”沃尔兹在一份声明中说。“随着医院面临拒绝新病人的危机，继续这样下去是完全不可持续的。”
Over 900 Mayo Clinic staff in Midwest have contracted COVID-19 in past 2 weeks
Over 900Mayo Clinic staffin the Midwest have contractedCOVID-19in the past two weeks, officials said, as the region experiences a surge in cases.
The medical center is "very worried" about thehealthof its staff and having enough people to care for patients ashealth careprofessionals themselves become infected with the virus or have to quarantine due to exposure, Dr. Amy Williams, executive dean of the Mayo Clinic Practice, said during a press call Tuesday.
In the last 14 days, 905 Mayo Clinic employees in the Midwest, including in Minnesota and Wisconsin, have been diagnosed with COVID-19, officials said. That number represents more than 30% of the total number of staff cases during the pandemic.
Most of the exposure -- about 93% -- happened in the community, not at work, Williams said.
"It shows how widely spread this is in our communities, and how easy it is to get COVID-19 in the communities here in the Midwest," Williams said.
Across the Midwest, about 1,500 Mayo Clinic employees have work restrictions due to COVID-19 exposure, diagnosis or having to care for family members who are sick, officials said. About 1,000 of those are at the Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota.
To help with staffing shortages in the Midwest, the Mayo Clinic is recruiting health care workers back from recent retirement, bringing in staff from other sites (primarily Arizona), temporarily moving research nurses into patient care roles and reducing elective care to redeploy staff to COVID-19 patients, officials said.
Minnesota recorded a record number of hospitalizations on Wednesday, with 1,706, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The areas of the state bordering Wisconsin are also reporting over 85% usage of critical care beds at hospitals, according to an internal Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Wednesday night.
Hospitalizations are only expected to increase in the coming weeks. In preparation, the Mayo Clinic Hospital's Saint Marys Campus in Rochester is increasing the number of medical beds to care for patients with and without COVID-19, Williams said.
"We need to be very vigilant and not assume that things are going to settle down," she said.
Amid rising cases and hospitalizations in the state, Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday announced new coronavirus restrictions.
Starting at 11:59 p.m. Friday and lasting for the next four weeks, all restaurants will be closed to in-person dining. Gyms and indoor entertainment venues will also be closed.
In-person social gatherings outside of the household are prohibited, as are weddings and private parties.
"We are at a breaking point," Walz said in a statement. "As hospitals near the crisis of turning away new patients, continuing as things are is simply not sustainable."
