As the 200th Morning Media Update began, doctors reported a “high plateau” in the number of active COVID-19 patients being treated at The University of Kansas Health System today. 75 people with the active virus are hospitalized, up from 70 yesterday. 26 patients are in the ICU, down from 29 yesterday. 11 of those ICU patients are on ventilators today, down from 14 yesterday. 66 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase, up from 56 yesterday. That’s a total of 141 patients, up from 126 yesterday. In addition, HaysMed has a total of 22 COVID-19 inpatients, up from 19 yesterday, with 19 of those active patients and 3 in the recovery phase.
On today’s briefing, Dr. David Wild joined with a statistical look back at patients and the pandemic. Dr. David Lisbon showed how the pandemic has affected emergency medicine, plus had thoughts on getting the vaccine to populations most at risk and Dr. Catherine Satterwhite, regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services updated the status of vaccine distribution in the region.
Dr. Wild had a summary of COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began in March. The health system has admitted 1977 patients, of which 182 have died, for a 9.6% mortality rate. The average age of admitted patients is 57 and the average age of those who died is 66. He says back in March, we were worried when we were getting 40 to 50 patients a month. But in November and December, that number leaped to 450 a month, with the highest number of deaths as well. The average hospital stay is five days. Nationally, Dr. Wild showed we’ve got the highest rate of virus spread since the pandemic began. He also pointed out that the Midwest is no longer leading the country in the 7-day average of cases per million people. That distinction now belongs to the Western region. Even so, he cautions, we are not out of the woods yet as the positivity rate in Kansas is still high.
Dr. Lisbon shared a graphic he first showed at the beginning of the pandemic.
The graphic shows the expected waves and the effects as the disease progressed. Dr. Lisbon says ten months later, the predictions have come true. He reported that in the Emergency Department, the positivity rate for the virus reached a high of 10.2%, and overall is 8.4%. He says 61% of the COVID-19- positive patients who come to the emergency department are admitted, and he’s noticed once a patient hits 55, they are more likely to be admitted.
Dr. Satterwhite says there have been some bumps in the vaccine rollout, but things are getting better, and states are working to improve vaccine distribution to the counties. She points out that CVS and Walgreens pharmacies have begun vaccinating nursing home staff and patients and will make three visits to each facility to make sure all get the vaccine. She thinks it might be a month before the general population 65 and older will have the chance to be vaccinated as those 75 and older are in the tier after nursing homes.
Dana. Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, says while he’s glad to have been a part of sharing factual information for the past 200 Morning Media Updates, he hopes it won’t be necessary to have 200 more. He thinks we still have a long way to go before the pandemic is over and urges us all to continue masking and social distancing, even after we’ve been vaccinated.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, brought our attention to a Facebook and YouTube Town Hall discussion tonight sponsored by BlackDoctor.org. It goes from 6 pm to 7:30 pm Central time and is called "Making it Plain ... What Black America Needs to know About COVID-19 and Vaccines.” He says the road to recovery will not be driven by falsehoods and that honesty will beat the virus. He urges everyone to get vaccinated when it’s their turn and to follow the pillars of infection prevention.
Friday, January 8 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. Amanda Cackler, director of quality and safety joins Dr. Hawkinson and Dr. Wild to help answer media and community questions.
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