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A drop in COVID-19 cases in the United States in recent weeks has relieved overwhelmed hospitals, but administrators are bracing for a possible further increase as cold weather pushes people inside.
Health experts say the fourth wave of the pandemic peaked across the United States, particularly in the Deep South, where hospitals were overcrowded weeks ago. But many northern states are still grappling with an increase in cases, and what lies ahead for the winter is much less clear.
The unknowns include how the flu season can strain already exhausted hospital staff and whether those who have refused to be vaccinated will change their minds. An estimated 70 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated, fueling the highly contagious delta variant.
The easing of the summer wave has been attributed to more masks being worn and more people getting vaccinated. The decrease in the number of cases could also be due to the fact that the virus burned susceptible people and ran out of fuel in some places.
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center began to see an increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations in mid-July, and by the first week of August, the hospital was beyond capacity. He put an end to elective surgeries and brought in doctors and nursing sisters to help treat patients.
With the business now over, the military team is due to leave at the end of October.
Still, the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr Catherine O’Neal, says the rate of hospitalizations is not declining as quickly as cases in the community because the delta variant affects more young people who are otherwise in good health and live much longer in the intensive care unit on ventilators.
“It creates a lot of intensive care patients who are not going anywhere,” she says. And a lot of patients don’t go home at all. In recent weeks, the hospital has seen several days with more than five deaths from COVID-19, including one day there were 10.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Department of Health has confirmed another child death, bringing the total number of pediatric deaths in this fourth wave to eight. A total of 17 children have died from COVID-19 in Louisiana.
As to where the outbreak is going, “I have to tell you that my crystal ball has shattered several times over the past two years,” O’Neal said.
Dr Sandra Kemmerly, medical director of the hospital quality system at Ochsner Health, says this fourth surge has been more difficult. “It’s just frustrating for people to die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” she says.
At the height of this most recent wave, Ochsner hospitals had 1,074 COVID-19 patients. That had fallen to 208 on Thursday. Read more.
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