Cleveland Clinic's Nonessential Surgeries Postponed Again

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Clinic announced Friday it will extend its postponement of nonessential surgeries that require a hospital stay through Dec. 31. Originally, they were put on hold through Dec. 17.

The decision, perhaps the latest sign that the coronavirus pandemic isn't letting up throughout Northeast Ohio, comes as the hospital system aims to make more hospital beds available.

"We’re continuing to see more people with COVID-19 who need to be hospitalized across our hospitals. To make sure we have space available for these patients," the hospital system said in a news release.

In addition, The Cleveland Clinic said it won't schedule new non-urgent inpatient surgeries that require a hospital stay through Jan. 3, 2022, excluding Lutheran and Euclid hospitals.

Essential and urgent surgeries will still be scheduled as well as heart, cancer, pediatric, transplant and outpatient surgeries.

"We will continue to evaluate our scheduled surgical cases as the pandemic continues," The Cleveland Clinic said.

As of Friday, Ohio reported 10,025 new cases of COVID-19, one of the highest daily case counts seen in 2021, and the addition of 434 deaths marked the highest total since the state began reporting deaths twice a week in the spring, Cleveland.com reported.

Ohio’s death toll since the beginning of the pandemic early last year now stands at 28,028.