COVID-19 overwhelms nursing staff in North Carolina

Seven months after the coronavirus pandemic began to overwhelm the American healthcare system, the nursing staff at University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill continues to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients inside their Medical Intensive Care Unit.

Loc Culp, the hospital's patient service manager, says her staff is still working around the clock to care for coronavirus patients.

"Everybody does 12-hour shifts. So, in a 12-hour shift, they're wearing PPE between nine to eleven hours each day," Culp told the Associated Press.

Throughout September, COVID-19 numbers in North Carolina were steady or declining – but last week the state saw consecutive days with a record number of cases.

Culp's staff is bracing for the long haul.

"What's difficult is just seeing people not being able to breathe," she said.

She worries what could happen if Americans start to let their guard down and ease safety precautions.

"It's real. It's very real. We've watched lots of patients die from this," Culp said.

Collin Stage is a nurse at UNC hospital.

The pandemic, he says, has taught him how to wear many different hats as patients were required to be isolated from their families.

"I think you only have to have one family member in the hospital to know that you want to be there right away and now you've got the people taking care of them saying you have to stay home," he said.

Culp admits the burden of the pandemic weighs heavily on her.

"There's probably not a day I don't cry. I'll just sit in my office and cry and then it'll be a few minutes and I'll walk out and it's fine," she said.

Since the start of the pandemic, 200,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

The number of deaths worldwide has surpassed one million.