There were 233 new COVID-19 cases reported in Douglas County Wednesday. With cases on the rise, local hospital systems are bracing for a wicked winter.”What we experienced last year with a sharp increase just before the holidays that carried through the holiday season,” said Ann Adler, Division Director of Infection Prevention with CHI Health.It may feel like Déjà vu, but this year, younger people are contracting COVID-19 — and some are getting even sicker — because of the highly contagious delta variant.”People are contracting COVID much more easily, and not being vaccinated is a huge risk for those younger populations,” Adler said.At CHI, more than 80 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. NebraskaMed and Methodist both say the vast majority of their COVID-19 patients also didn’t get the shot.”I think if the community around her all would have been fully vaccinated, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Omaha resident Kelly Ogren. Her mother, Marge, was fully vaccinated. But the 77-year-old had underlying conditions. She was hospitalized with COVID-19 and passed away.”I just think the world is a more caring place because she was in it,” Ogren said. Dr. James Lawler with Nebraska Medicine finds the increase in cases and hospitalizations predictable, but preventable.”We’ve been trying to tell people that the pandemic’s not over and that we should be taking all of the precautions that we took last year,” Lawler said.The community, Lawler said, is paying the price of a low vaccination rate and forgoing preventative measures, like indoor masking. “Additional cases of COVID-19 just create additional burden and strain on the hospital,” Lawler said.Now, there’s an additional threat, one that hardly existed last year. “The prospect of influenza cases being piled on top of are pretty scary for those of us in the health systems,” Lawler said.Ogren wants the unvaccinated to rise to the occasion, so no one else has to feel the pain she does.”She was taken from us earlier than she should have been,” Ogren said. Lawler said you should get tested as soon as you feel symptoms, because there are more options for treatment than last year. That could help prevent a trip to the ER.
There were 233 new COVID-19 cases reported in Douglas County Wednesday. With cases on the rise, local hospital systems are bracing for a wicked winter.
“What we experienced last year with a sharp increase just before the holidays that carried through the holiday season,” said Ann Adler, Division Director of Infection Prevention with CHI Health.
It may feel like Déjà vu, but this year, younger people are contracting COVID-19 — and some are getting even sicker — because of the highly contagious delta variant.
“People are contracting COVID much more easily, and not being vaccinated is a huge risk for those younger populations,” Adler said.
At CHI, more than 80 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. NebraskaMed and Methodist both say the vast majority of their COVID-19 patients also didn’t get the shot.
“I think if the community around her all would have been fully vaccinated, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Omaha resident Kelly Ogren. Her mother, Marge, was fully vaccinated. But the 77-year-old had underlying conditions. She was hospitalized with COVID-19 and passed away.
“I just think the world is a more caring place because she was in it,” Ogren said.
Dr. James Lawler with Nebraska Medicine finds the increase in cases and hospitalizations predictable, but preventable.
“We’ve been trying to tell people that the pandemic’s not over and that we should be taking all of the precautions that we took last year,” Lawler said.
The community, Lawler said, is paying the price of a low vaccination rate and forgoing preventative measures, like indoor masking.
“Additional cases of COVID-19 just create additional burden and strain on the hospital,” Lawler said.
Now, there’s an additional threat, one that hardly existed last year.
“The prospect of influenza cases being piled on top of [COVID-19] are pretty scary for those of us in the health systems,” Lawler said.
Ogren wants the unvaccinated to rise to the occasion, so no one else has to feel the pain she does.
“She was taken from us earlier than she should have been,” Ogren said.
Lawler said you should get tested as soon as you feel symptoms, because there are more options for treatment than last year. That could help prevent a trip to the ER.
https://www.ketv.com/article/the-pandemics-not-over-health-care-workers-react-to-rise-in-cases-and-hospitalizations/38283021
