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Located at the epicenter of Bergen County's coronavirus crisis, the hospital was caring for 100 patients who either tested positive for coronavirus or were waiting for results on Wednesday night, a Holy Name spokesperson said.
A quarter of those patients were on ventilators with only nine machines remaining.
Patients are coming in to the hospital very sick and progressing to respiratory failure quickly, Dr. Suraj Saggar said.
The hospital has other contingency plans in place that require putting more than one patient on a vent as a last resort, the spokesperson said.
All they can do for now, Saggar told NJ.com, is stay ahead in the race. And Holy Name is not alone.
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New Jersey has a ventilator deficit of about 300, the state's health commissioner Judy Persichilli said Monday, noting 400 have been requested.
The patients on the ventilators at Holy Name Medical Center were between ages 27 and 89, the spokesperson said.
Since March 11, 943 people have been tested for coronavirus and 212 of those were negative. There were 563 cases pending as of Wednesday.
There were more than 4,400 coronavirus cases reported Wednesday in New Jersey, including 62 fatalities.
The state has just more than 18,000 acute care beds including 2,000 for critical care patients, Murphy said.
But officials say things are going to get worse, which is why 2,360 beds will soon be added over the next several weeks.
"Hospitals are under tremendous stress and are currently meeting the needs of patients who require hospitalization," Murphy said. "But we must be ready for the time when the surge comes."
Field hospitals will soon go up at convention centers in Secaucus, Edison and Atlantic City, said Murphy, noting there would be one hospital in each region of the state.
"We have been working aggressively to expand hospital capacity," Murphy said. "We are in this fight to save lives. Everyone is indispensable. We will fight to save every single life. We will leave nothing on the battle field in that effort."
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