罗德岛州处于需要开放其新冠肺炎野战医院的边缘，官员们担心接下来几周会发生什么。

“我们担心今年12月，我们的重症监护室会人满为患，野战医院会很快人满为患，”沃里克肯特医院急救医学主任劳拉·福尔曼博士告诉记者普罗维登斯ABC附属公司WLNE星期五。

福尔曼也是克兰斯顿野战医院的首席医疗官，这是该州两所待命的野战医院之一。

“我们最关心的是接下来几周会发生什么，”她告诉电视台。“你知道，在全州范围内，我们真的被推到了医院容量的边缘，我们非常担心，按照目前的轨迹，我们很快就会被推进野战医院。”

州长吉娜·雷蒙多(Gina Raimondo)在周四的新闻发布会上说，罗德岛州医院的新冠肺炎床位达到了97%的容量，住院人数的增长速度也超过了春季的峰值。

雷蒙多说，按照目前的速度，克兰斯顿野战医院可能需要在感恩节后一周开放。

“我们正走在一条让医院不堪重负的非常糟糕的道路上，所以需要做更多的事情，”州长说，并警告说医院正处于“临界点”。

伊丽莎白·弗兰茨/纽约时报

2020年11月7日，星期六，一名卫生保健人员在普罗维登斯的一家诊所进行冠状病毒测试。

罗德岛本周有300人住院，状态数据显示，接近4月底和5月初住院高峰时的水平。它报告了11月17日创纪录的55起住院事件。

在看到新冠肺炎案件与社会事件联系在一起后，雷蒙多周四宣布了该州的新限制。社交聚会立即被限制在一个家庭，包括感恩节。

      从11月30日开始，该州将暂停两周，除其他限制外，学院、酒吧、娱乐场所和健身房都将关闭。

       此前，本月早些时候出台了更有针对性的措施，包括对酒吧和餐馆实施宵禁，以及对购物中心和大卖场零售商的产能限制。

雷蒙多周四说:“我处在一个充满糟糕选择的世界里，我正在努力选择最不糟糕的选项。”。“我正努力让我们熬到年底，而不至于让医院系统不堪重负。”

目标是避免完全封锁，以及不得不限制选择性医院程序。

“这是照顾那些心脏病发作、中风和受伤的人，这是我们所有人的优先事项，所以我们能够照顾他们所有人。但是拥有COVID的人越多，这就越困难，”福尔曼告诉WLNE。

医生也担心人手不足。

“能照顾病人的合格护士和医生只有这么多，医院的床位也只有这么多，ICU的床位也只有这么多，”她告诉WLNE。

福尔曼“希望”人们会评估利害关系，并遵守限制。

“我真的希望人们会认真对待这件事，”她说，“因为罗德岛人正因此而死去，我们需要阻止这一切。”

Rhode Island COVID-19 hospitalizations at 'tipping point' as officials issue warnings

Rhode Island is on the brink of needing to open its COVID-19 field hospitals -- and officials are fearful of what the next few weeks will bring.

"We're worried that this will be a December in which our ICUs overflow and which the field hospital is rapidly filled up," Dr. Laura Forman, chief of emergency medicine at Kent Hospital in Warwick, toldProvidence ABC affiliate WLNEon Friday.

Forman is also chief medical officer for the Cranston field hospital, one of two field hospitals that are on standby in the state.

"Our big concern is what happens in the next couple of weeks," she told the station. "You know, across the state, we are really being pushed to the brink in terms of hospital capacity, and we're very worried that at this current trajectory we're going to be pushed into the field hospital pretty soon."

Hospitals' COVID-19 beds were at 97% capacity in Rhode Island, and hospitalizations were increasing at a faster rate than they were at their peak in the spring, Gov. Gina Raimondo said at a press briefing Thursday.

At the current rate, the Cranston field hospital will likely need to open a week after Thanksgiving, Raimondo said.

"We are on a very bad path toward overwhelming our hospitals, so something more needs to be done," said the governor, warning that hospitals were at a "tipping point."

Rhode Island crossed 300 current hospitalizations this week,state data shows, approaching levels seen during peak hospitalizations in late April and early May. It reported a record 55 hospital admissions on Nov. 17.

After seeing COVID-19 cases tied to social events, Raimondo on Thursday announced new restrictions in the state. Social gatherings were immediately limited to a single household, including for Thanksgiving.

       Starting Nov. 30, the state will go on a two-week pause, with in-person colleges, bar areas, recreational venues and gyms closed, among other restrictions.

      This follows more targeted measures, including a curfew on bars and restaurants and capacity limits for shopping malls and big-box retailers, issued earlier this month.

"I'm in a world of all bad choices, and I'm trying to pick the least bad of the options," Raimondo said Thursday. "I am trying to get us through to the end of the year without overwhelming the hospital system."

The goal is to avoid a full lockdown, as well as having to limit elective hospital procedures.

"It's taking care of people who have heart attacks and strokes and injuries, and that is a priority for all of us so we are able to care for them all. But the more people that have COVID, the more difficult that becomes," Forman told WLNE.

The doctor is also concerned about staffing shortages.

"There are only so many qualified nurses and doctors who can take care of patients, and there are only so many hospital beds, there are only so many ICU beds," she told WLNE.

Forman was "hopeful" that people will take stock of what is at stake and follow the restrictions.

"I'm really hopeful that people will take this seriously," she said, "because Rhode Islanders are dying from this, and we need to stop this."