The US COVID-19 surge is overwhelming hospitals and causing long ambulance wait times nationwide

• The COVID-19 surge in the US is causing longer ambulance wait times, Axios reported Friday.
• For example, ambulance turnaround times have increased by 200% in Arkansas, Axios reported.
• Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have also had their emergency resources overwhelmed.

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the US, not only are hospitals being inundated with patients, but so are ambulance services, resulting in longer wait times.

"It just went one level all the way to 10 in the blink of an eye," Jamie Pafford, the CEO of Pafford Emergency Medical Services in Arkansas, told Axios in a report published Friday.

"Unfortunately, Arkansas is not a big vaccination state and we have really kind of had our New York moment here lately," Pafford said, referring to the state's spike in COVID-19 cases fueled by the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Ambulance turnaround times have increased by 200% in Arkansas, Axios reported, citing the Arkansas Ambulance Association.

Pafford told the news outlet that due to a shortage of hospital beds, ambulances holding critically ill patients have had to wait in emergency department driveways with nurses rushing to switch out the vehicle's oxygen tanks.

Alan Morgan, the CEO of the National Rural Health Association, told Axios that rural states like Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have also had their emergency resources overwhelmed.

The COVID-19 situation has resulted in a "trend playing out across the country, threatening to erode our nation's EMS system," Shawn Baird, president of the American Ambulance Association, told Axios.