COVID-19 316 patients were hospitalized in a West Coast county’s hospitals as of Sunday. There is a 48% increase from a week ago. This is according to state data. 70 of those patients are at Saint Agnes Medical Center in one of the county’s hospitals.
There is Progress in the Fight against COVID-19
“Moreover, we have it down to as low as six to eight patients in the hospital. This is where you can see where 70 is a major difference,” said Deanette Sisson. She is the chief nursing officer at Saint Agnes Medical Center.
One of the biggest differences in this surge is that the patients are younger, according to Sisson.
Younger COVID-19 Patients
“In fact, we do have a large percentage that is less than 60. Moreover, there is a greater percentage is less than 60 than over 60,” Sisson said.
There is the volume of COVID-19 patients the county is now experiencing has reached levels during the summer surge in 2020. Thus this time around there is a vaccine. However, but the vaccination rates in the Central Valley continue to fall behind many other parts of the state.
“Most of our patients who are hospitalized have not had a vaccine,” Sisson said.
The good news depending on who you ask is the demand for COVID-19 testing is also rising. Let’s shout from the rooftops!
“In fact, what really has shot through the roof has been the demand for testing,” said Dr. Kenny Banh. He is the director of the UCSF Fresno Mobile HeaL COVID-19 Equity Project. “Moreover, on our slowest day what we have seen as few as 10,15 tests on some days. Now, we’re testing over 100 every single day, and then sometimes we’re doing 200 on certain days.”
Banh said they’ve also seen an acceleration in vaccinations on some days within the last two weeks.
Vaccinations on the Rise
“From last month, we were steadily trending down, and then just in the last two weeks, we really shot kind of back up where we’re averaging over 150 to 200 vaccines a day on some days,” Banh said.
