Once Called A ‘War Zone,’ This N.J. Hospital Now Has Zero Coronavirus Patients

A Bergen County hospital once overwhelmed by the coronavirus outbreak and described by one of its chief doctors as a “war zone” now has zero COVID-19 patients, according to a report.

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As of Friday, Holy Name Medical Center, in Teaneck, once at the epicenter of New Jersey’s coronavirus outbreak, has discharged all of its patients that had COVID-19, the hospital’s chief medical officer Adam Jarrett told NorthJersey.com. More than four months after the first case of the coronavirus was reported in nearby Fort Lee, the hospital’s halls are clear of people vying with the virus that continues to sweep across the world.

NorthJersey.com was the first to report that the hospital had cleared all of its COVID-19 patients.

“It’s great for us and the community we serve,” Jarrett told NorthJersey. “But we shouldn’t be falsely reassured.”

Since the first case of the coronavirus case was reported in a Fort Lee man who was hospitalized at Hackensack University Medical Center, Bergen County has been an epicenter for the pandemic in New Jersey.

As of noon Friday, there were 9,851 total presumptive positive cases identified in Bergen County, affecting all 70 municipalities, according to statistics posted by Bergen County Executive James Tedesco. There had been 1,751 deaths linked to COVID-19 as of Friday, he said.

Based in Teaneck, which has the third-most cases of the virus in the county, Holy Name was soon overrun by the virus and soon became the epicenter of the outbreak, with the sheer amount of cases nearly overwhelming the hospital in the first few weeks of the pandemic.

Just three weeks after the first case, Holy Name Medical Center staff were running out of hospital gowns and personal protective equipment to help them stay safe and healthy as they battled the virus. At one point, the hospital was in danger of running out of the desperately needed ventilators that pumped oxygen into dying patients’ lungs.

The situation grew so dire that Holy Name staff made a public plea on Twitter for donations of personal protective equipment.

Since the pandemic hit New Jersey, Holy Name has admitted 1,357 patients with the coronavirus and more than 267 died, Jarrett told NorthJersey.

Saturday’s hopeful news comes as cases continue to grow — albeit at a slower clip — but hospitalizations in the Garden State continue to fall. As of Friday night, there were 872 patients with the coronavirus or under investigation for it across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals. That’s down from 904 patients from Thursday.

Of those hospitalized Friday, 166 were in intensive or critical care (up four from Thursday) and 87 were on ventilators (down six from Thursday).

There were 78 coronavirus patients discharged across all 71 hospitals Friday, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.

New Jersey has now reported 15,525 deaths related to COVID-19 — 13,578 lab-confirmed and 1,947 probable — with 174,959 known cases in the little more than four months since the state’s first case was announced March 4.

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