随着冬季的临近，科罗拉多州的医院正面临着一场新的新冠肺炎危机大量病人涌入医疗机构。一线工人继续首当其冲地受到该州最新一波疫情的冲击，人员短缺只会加剧现有问题。

“我们的医院和重症监护室里挤满了正在使用呼吸机的病人，其中许多人濒临死亡，”加州大学健康学院的重症监护医生戴安娜·布雷耶博士告诉美国广播公司新闻。

根据联邦数据，科罗拉多州目前有1500多名患者在接受新冠肺炎的治疗，这是近一年来患者人数最多的一年。

平均而言，每天有近230名居民入住医院，州数据显示，目前全州超过94%的重症监护病床在使用。

根据科罗拉多州公共卫生和环境部和科罗拉多州公共卫生学院本月早些时候发布的建模报告，目前感染人数接近疫情的最高水平，该州估计目前每48人中就有1人感染。

布雷耶说:“我希望人们能看到我所看到的，因为我们正在与新冠肺炎进行另一次增兵。

布雷耶目前在科罗拉多州北部的三家乌切思医院照顾一些病情最严重的病人，她解释说，她越来越担心她看到的病人数量大幅增加。

詹森·苏塔/舒特斯托克

一名救护人员用担架将一个人抬出了医院的紧急入口

“随着这种激增，我们在重症监护室看到了更年轻的患者。我们在整个疫情看到了各种年龄的患者，”布雷耶说，并补充说，这些患者中的绝大多数没有接种疫苗。“我们看到人们病得很重，死于这种疾病，这些人不需要现在就死去。”

像全国许多其他一线工作人员一样，科罗拉多州的卫生工作者过度劳累，筋疲力尽，导致严重的人员短缺。

科罗拉多州格伦伍德斯普林斯的贝尔维尤医院的首席护理官道恩·斯库科告诉美国广播公司新闻，“照顾这么多新冠肺炎病人很难，只是他们在这里和我们在一起多长时间的挑战，以及这给工作人员带来的压力。“从组织的角度来看，这是一个全动手的局面。”

为了帮助管理全州需要护理的患者的涌入，科罗拉多州卫生官员周二晚些时候宣布，该州重新启动了医疗保健系统人员配置的危机护理标准。

“我们希望确保科罗拉多人知道他们能够并且应该继续获得必要的医疗保健。如果你生病了，需要护理，请去拿吧，”科罗拉多州卫生部首席医疗官埃里克·弗兰斯博士在一份声明中说。“启动员工危机护理标准，可以让医疗保健系统利用现有员工，最大限度地在社区提供护理。”

Centura Littleton基督复临安息日会医院的首席医疗官马特·门登霍尔博士告诉美国广播公司新闻，工作人员已经筋疲力尽，捉襟见肘。他补充说，这项工作“只会越来越难。”

“当我们的医院挤满了病人时，每个人都会得到不同于我们通常提供的护理。这可能会导致延误，我担心，更糟糕的结果，”布雷耶说。

由于担心未来几周科罗拉多州的疫情疫情会恶化，州长贾里德·波利斯(Jared Polis)采取了额外的行政措施，允许所有18岁以上的居民在接种第二剂辉瑞疫苗或Moderna疫苗六个月后，或接种强生疫苗两个月后，接受加强注射。

目前的联邦指南只授权给老年人、有潜在健康问题的人和被认为有高感染风险的人。

在周四的一项行政命令中，波利斯宣布“整个科罗拉多州暴露或传播新冠肺炎的风险很高”。

本周，科罗拉多州官员还宣布，联邦紧急医疗机构的医疗增援小组已被要求为人手不足的医疗设施。

波利斯本月早些时候签署了一项“紧急”行政命令，允许该州卫生部门命令医院在达到或接近容量后转移或停止接收病人。

卫生专家继续敦促美国人接种疫苗，并在符合条件时加强接种，以帮助阻止疫情疫情，防止严重疾病和死亡。

此时，科罗拉多州总人口的大约62.3%已经完全接种疫苗，在各州中排名第14位。

“外面有太多的错误信息，”布雷耶说。“当我看到人们时，他们已经筋疲力尽了。他们又焦虑又害怕，马上就要用呼吸机了，有些人会死的。我只希望我们能想出办法让更多的人相信疫苗接种的安全性和有效性。真的是第一治疗可以防止人们在这里结束。”

Colorado hospitals on edge amid renewed COVID surge, staffing shortages

As winter approaches, hospitals across the state of Colorado are facing a renewedCOVID-19 crisiswith an influx of patients flooding into health care facilities. Front-line workers continue to bear the brunt of the state's latest wave, with staffing shortages only exacerbating existing issues.

"Our hospitals and ICUs are filling up with patients who are going on ventilators and many of them dying," Dr. Diana Breyer, a critical care physician at UC Health, told ABC News.

There are now more than 1,500 patients receiving care for COVID-19 across Colorado, marking the highest number of patients in nearly a year, according to federal data.

On average, nearly 230 residents are being admitted to the hospital each day, with state data now showing more than 94% of intensive care beds are currently in use statewide.

The number of people currently infected is approaching the highest levels of the pandemic, with 1 in 48 people in the state estimated to be currently infectious, according to the modeling report released earlier this month by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado School of Public Health.

"I wish that people could see what I see as we are in another surge with COVID-19," said Breyer.

Breyer, who currently cares for some of the sickest patients at three of UCHealth hospitals in northern Colorado, explained that she is growing increasingly concerned about the significant increase in the number of patients she is seeing.

"With this surge we are seeing younger patients in our ICUs. We have seen patients of all ages throughout this pandemic," Breyer said, adding that the great majority of these patients are unvaccinated. "We are seeing people get very sick and die from this disease and these people don't need to be dying right now."

Like many other front-line workers across the country, Colorado health workers are overworked and exhausted, leading to critical staffing shortages.

"It is difficult to care for so many COVID-19 patients, just the challenges of how long they're here with us, as well as the strain that it puts on the staff," Dawn Sculco, chief nursing officer at Bellevue Hospital in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, told ABC News. "From an organizational perspective this is an all-hands-on-deck situation."

To help manage the influx of patients who are in need of care across the state, Colorado health officials announced late Tuesday that the state had reactivated crisis standards of care for staffing of health care systems.

"We want to be sure Coloradans know they can and should continue to access necessary health care. If you're sick and need care, please go get it," Dr. Eric France, Colorado Department of Health's chief medical officer, said in a statement. "Activating staffing crisis standards of care allows health care systems to maximize the care they can provide in their communities with the staff they have available."

Staff are exhausted and stretched thin, said Dr. Matt Mendenhall, chief medical officer at Centura Littleton Adventist Hospital, told ABC News, adding that the work is "only getting harder."

"When our hospitals are overcrowded with patients, everybody will have care that is different than how we usually deliver it. And this can lead to delays, and I'm afraid, worse outcomes," Breyer said.

Concerns that the pandemic will worsen in Colorado in the weeks to come led Gov. Jared Polis to take additional executive action to allow all residents over the age of 18 to receive a booster shot six months after their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two months past their Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Current federal guidelines have only authorized boosters for the elderly, those with underlying health conditions and for people deemed at high risk of infection.

Polis declared "the entire State of Colorado high risk for exposure or transmission of COVID-19," in an executive order on Thursday.

This week, Colorado officials also announced Federal Emergency Medical Agency medical surge teams had been requested for understaffed medical facilities.

Polis signed an "urgent" executive order earlier this month that would permit the state's health department to order hospitals to transfer or stop admitting patients after reaching or nearing capacity.

Health experts continue to urge Americans to get vaccinated, and boosted when eligible, to help stop the pandemic and prevent severe disease and deaths.

At this time, approximately 62.3% of Colorado's total population has been fully vaccinated, ranking it 14th among states.

"There's so much misinformation out there," said Breyer. "When I see people, they're at the end of their rope there. They're anxious and scared and about to go on a ventilator, some of whom will die. And I just wish that we could figure out what to do to convince more people of the safety and efficacy of the vaccination. It really is the No. 1 treatment that can prevent people from ending up here."