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Hospital CEO: have a backup plan if you can't get seen for COVID-19

Iowa set yet another COVID-19 hospitalization record Sunday, with nearly 1,000 Iowans in the hospital with the virus as facilities near the brink of capacity.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in Iowa, hospitals are having to start planning for what to do if they reach their capacity.

Sunday, Iowa saw another record high amount of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, with 992 patients battling the virus in the hospital.

Of those, 190 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 77 are on ventilators as of Sunday.

With hospital across the state continuing to fill up, University of Iowa Healthcare Cesuresh Gunasekarano is now warning Iowans to have a backup plan in case you're not able to get into your local hospital.

"Each local community has to ask themselves: 'are you prepared to seek care elsewhere if your individual hospital in your own community can no longer provide care to you?'" Gunasekarano said.

Gunasekarano says his facilities are not overwhelmed at the moment, but they are preparing for if it should come to that.

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