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East Alabama Health COVID-19 hospitalizations climb to 44

<p>The front of East Alabama Medical Center on Aug. 9, 2021, in Opelika, Ala.</p>

The front of East Alabama Medical Center on Aug. 9, 2021, in Opelika, Ala.

Over 80% of the East Alabama Health system's current COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated and hospitalizations have nearly doubled in six days, an EAH system official said Monday afternoon.

There are currently 44 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 within the EAH system between East Alabama Medical Center and EAMC-Lanier in Valley, according to EAH spokesperson John Atkinson. Nine of the 44 patients are in EAMC's intensive care unit, and only one of the nine is vaccinated, Atkinson said.

"We do expect [hospitalizations] to get higher over the next month or so," he said. "It's likely to surpass the first and second peaks from April and July 2020 when we reached 54 and 62, respectively."

Just 40% of Lee County residents have received one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, while only about 33% have fully completed their vaccine series, per the latest data from the Alabama Department of Public Health.

The 44 hospitalizations within EAH are the highest number the health system has seen since Feb. 15, when EAMC had 45 COVID-19 patients. The health system is up 18 patients from 26 hospitalizations on Aug. 3, Atkinson said, but only one patient is on a ventilator at this time.

"The total in February was on the good side of the organization's third peak," he said. "We hope we don't reach our third peak of 92 which occurred in January of this year."

At one point last week when EAH had 36 COVID-19 patients, Atkinson said 28 of those individuals were unvaccinated. He said the average age of patients has overall decreased this year, with more children under 18 being admitted into the EAH system.

"All of [the unvaccinated patients] were younger than 65," he said. "I believe 8 of the 28 were in their 30s and 40s."

Dr. Richard Glaze of EAMC's Pediatric Clinic said staff were hopeful earlier this summer that children might return to school without COVID guidelines, but an increasing positivity rate among youth has the clinic concerned. 

"In the last three-and-a-half weeks, we’ve certainly seen a spike in COVID activity in the community, with about 60 cases in our clinic alone each of the last two weeks, and positivity rates going to 15-16% in the last two weeks," Glaze said.

The pediatric positivity rate was at 2.78% for the week ending May 16, according to Atkinson, but has since reached rates as high as 24% last Thursday.

"That’s concerning because in August 2020, the Pediatric Clinic experienced double the number of COVID cases for weeks three and four following the first two week of school," Atkinson said.

The EAH system cannot determine how many patients are infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus, according to Atkinson, as the main COVID-19 testing kits used are not equipped to indicate specific strains in their results.

"Only certain molecular tests — such as the multiplex real-time PCR test — are capable of determining the particular strain of COVID-19," he said.

EAMC is currently under a red visitation level, which means visitors are only permitted between 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. each day and visitors under 16 are not allowed entry. The hospital has also placed restrictions on which areas visitors can access and how many visitors are permitted at one time.

Some health systems such as Ascension, which runs St. Vincent's hospitals in Birmingham and Providence Hospital in Mobile, are requiring employees to receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, Atkinson said the EAH system is not currently planning to require its staff and volunteers to be vaccinated.

"It's a discussion that has come up, but there are no definitive plans at this time," he said.

EAMC closed its community vaccination clinic in June, but Atkinson said the EAH system is still providing vaccines through the East Alabama Apothecary pharmacy within the new Auburn Medical Pavilion at 900 Camp Auburn Road in Auburn.

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Tim Nail | Community Editor

Tim Nail, senior in journalism, is the community editor of The Auburn Plainsman.

@timmnail

community@theplainsman.com

timnail@auburn.edu


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