St. Joseph’s Hospital originally had multiple specialized COVID-19 units at the height of the pandemic, but when the population seemed to be coming out of it, they closed the last one down.
By Aug. 11 they needed to reopen one of them. The area is closed off with red tape and a sign telling doctors and nurses that specific PPE is required inside that unit.
Since Aug. 23, though cases haven’t dropped significantly, they have stabilized instead of rising.
On Wednesday there were 67 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 19 of which are in the special unit at St. Joseph’s.
Dr. Philip Falcone, Chief Medical Officer at St. Joseph’s Health, believes that there will always be concern but that the point they are at right now is not a cause for worry.
Over the winter, the hospital handled 336 hospitalized COVID patients.
He thinks cases have indeed gone up but does not view this wave as a huge surge, thanks to the vaccine keeping most breakthrough cases out of the hospital.
Out of the 19 patients at St. Joseph’s, 11 are entirely unvaccinated, 3 are partially vaccinated and 5 are fully vaccinated.
The majority of the 19 patients have underlying health conditions and currently the majority of the Onondaga County population is vaccinated at 67%, which makes the unvaccinated the minority of the hospitalized population.
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