NC hospitals filling with COVID-19 patients and plead for public’s help to turn tide
With their rooms and wards filling with COVID-19 patients, hospitals across North Carolina are pleading with the public to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The leaders of Duke, UNC, WakeMed, Atrium, Novant Health and two dozen other hospitals and hospital systems released a joint letter Wednesday urging people to get vaccinated and take other steps to help bring the disease under control.
“With COVID-19 spreading like wildfire, your personal decisions about how to coexist with the virus directly affect the health and well-being of your family and community,” the letter reads. “Our best chance of returning to living healthy, normal lives is to make sure our families, friends and work colleagues are choosing to be vaccinated and getting their recommended booster shots.”
North Carolina saw record-breaking numbers of COVID-19 patients for the second straight day Wednesday, passing 4,000 for the first time since the pandemic’s began in the spring of 2020.
Across the state, 4,098 people are now receiving hospital care for the virus. Hospitalizations have more than tripled since the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus emerged in the state last month.
In mid-December, pediatric patients made up only 1% of the state’s hospitalized COVID-19 caseload. That number had more than doubled by last week.
Meanwhile, North Carolina added more than 25,000 confirmed cases to its running coronavirus total Wednesday, a figure that also approaches a record.
While omicron has caused a spike in hospitalizations, the variant causes less severe illness in many people. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19 in North Carolina, about 17.5% require intensive care, compared to nearly a third of patients hospitalized with the delta variant late last summer.
But omicron can still cause some people to get very sick, particularly those who are not vaccinated. More than 85% of people in hospital intensive care units have not been vaccinated, public health officials say.
“While it might cause only mild illnesses for some people, including some who have been vaccinated, our hospitals are filling up fast with COVID patients — a vast majority of whom are unvaccinated,” the hospital leaders wrote. “This situation is putting daily strain on our ability to care for those who have other urgent medical needs that are not COVID-related. It is heartbreaking, which is why we are reaching out to you.”
In addition to getting vaccinated and boosted, the letter asks people to practice the “Three Ws” that former state Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen repeated so often: “Wearing a mask properly covering your nose and mouth, waiting six feet apart (social distancing), and washing or disinfecting hands frequently.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 1:40 PM with the headline "NC hospitals filling with COVID-19 patients and plead for public’s help to turn tide."
