MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Wednesday report from the DHHR drops active coronavirus cases slightly to 13,344 and 1,496 new cases have been confirmed since the last update.
Hospitalizations are up to 995 from 978 in the Tuesday report and still down from a pandemic high of 1008 reported last week. Statewide a pandemic high of 297 people in ICU units and another 194 people are on ventilators.
On MetroNews Talkline, President and CEO of WVU Medicine Albert Wright said they are still operating in crisis mode. At Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown there are no regular or ICU beds available- 119 are hospitalized and 19 people are in the ICU. Across the WVU Medicine system data indicates there are 576 people hospitalized and only 34 available beds.
“Even though you’ve got some beds you could put folks in,” Wright said,” The fact is, a lot of the need is in critical care, the most intense type of nursing, you can’t always flip and grow that staff over night.”
Wright said they filling staff needs by reassigning people with critical experience to critical care setting to bridge the gap. Volunteers and others working additional hours are also helping to fill the need.
The last two to three weeks have been very difficult to manage space and the harsh reality the disease has presented to hospital staff and family members.
“I checked in to see how they were doing and they had some deaths and actually said, and this is a quote- It’s terrible when death is part of the issue resolution, but, that’s where we’re at,” Wright said,” We’re still seeing very sick folks that are mostly unvaccinated.”
Again, a key statistic within the hospitalization numbers is a common thread- the number of unvaccinated people that end up in the hospital after infection.
“Eighty to eighty-five percent unvaccinated are the folks that end up in the hospital,” Wright said,” The rest that are vaccinated are usually older folks that have had the vaccine and usually have some comorbidities.”
The burden creates medical delays for people waiting for elective procedures. The reduction in elective procedures can worsen both the outcome for the patient and and the financial viability of hospital systems across the state.
“We still do elective procedures that do not require an in patient admission,” Wright said,” Because for the most part it’s the in patient admissions that are challenging due to the shortage of beds, so we’ve cut those down by about 50 percent.”
In Morgantown, about 1,200 employees eligible for the booster shot received it this week and Wright said they will soon establish a booster clinics. The clinics will be available to anyone eligible for the booster dose or who may want to get the vaccine.
“We’re going door-to-door educating people on the need to get vaccinations, I still believe 100 percent that’s our way out of this,” Wright said,” And if you know or have a loved one working at a hospital or healthcare facility thank them for what they’re dong because they’re doing God’s work.”