Sixteen COVID-19 patients are on ventilators at East Alabama Health hospitals, a number that officials felt wouldn’t be reached after vaccines became available. There are 77 patients hospitalized at EAH for COVID-19, the highest since January 2021. 

For perspective, two weeks ago, from Aug. 8-11, there was one COVID-19 patient on a ventilator. That number rose, reaching 13 on Aug. 21.

From April 3-5, 2020, East Alabama Medical Center and EAMC-Lanier had 22 COVID patients on ventilators, the most at any point of the pandemic. That number decreased and sat at only nine when EAH encountered the second peak of the pandemic in terms of total positive cases. 

During the largest peak of cases in January, ventilator usage spiked up again to 20. 

In a press release Tuesday, John Atkinson, spokesperson for EAH, said at that point hospital officials and physicians felt like high ventilator usage would no longer be necessary, due to the rollout of the vaccines and widespread accessibility.

Dr. Meshia Wallace, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at EAMC, said that the vaccines have been effective at keeping those who receive them out of the intensive care unit and off ventilators. 

Hospital data from Monday shows that 15 of 16 patients on ventilators were unvaccinated, and 20 of 22 of those in the intensive care unit were unvaccinated, with one patient fully vaccinated and the other patient partially vaccinated.

“What we’re seeing here is what other hospitals are seeing as well,” Wallace said. “And that is that people who are vaccinated and experience a breakthrough case are very unlikely to be admitted to the ICU or to need to be placed on a ventilator.”

Some younger patients are also being placed on ventilators now, including some in their 20s and ones who are pregnant, Wallace said. Younger patients tend to have fewer illnesses that worsen the effect of COVID-19, but the increased severity of the delta variant makes it more likely that younger patients will require hospitalization, Wallace said.

Who is being hospitalized?

On Monday, when hospitalizations sat at 74 for EAMC and EAMC-Lanier, 59 were unvaccinated, two were partially vaccinated and 13 were fully vaccinated. 

The age range was spread, with those 70-79 making up the largest portion of the hospitalized population at 20. One patient was between 0-18, while five were 19-29 and five more patients were 30-39.

Throughout the state, 2786 patients are hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Forty of those patients are pediatric patients, 853 are in the intensive care unit and 565 are on ventilators.

ADPH reports that 43.9% of hospital ventilators in Alabama are available and intensive care units are filled to 60 patients greater than the number of beds available.

In addition, 53% of all patients in the ICU across Alabama are positive for COVID-19.

Pediatrics

The novel coronavirus is now spreading among children at higher rates than throughout the pandemic, Atkinson said Monday. 

During the week of Aug. 16-22, a new high of 219 patients aged 0-18 tested positive at the Pediatric Clinic at EAMC. This came after a previous high of 116 pediatric patients the week before.

About 17% of all pediatric patients at the Pediatric Clinic tested positive, down from the prior week’s positivity rate of 20%.

At the Pediatric Associates of Auburn, 20.6% of pediatric patients tested last week returned a positive result.