Bellingham hospital sets COVID record high and asks Whatcom residents to get booster shots
Amid a 50% surge in COVID-related hospitalizations over the holiday weekend to pandemic record levels, St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham made an urgent request for Whatcom County residents to “take the precautions that we know will help keep hospitalizations down.”
The hospital reported that it was treating 45 patients for COVID-related symptoms on Monday, Jan. 3, which was up from 30 reported on Thursday, Dec. 30. Over the weekend, the hospital saw 30 COVID-related hospitalizations Friday, 34 Saturday and 39 on Sunday.
The hospital’s previous daily snapshot high during the pandemic was 42 COVID-related patients, which it saw four times between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1, according to The Bellingham Herald’s archives.
Due to the sudden increase in COVID-related hospitalizations, PeaceHealth has been forced to expand its COVID bed capacity and asked for community help in minimizing transmission and severity of infections, according to a news release Monday morning.
“We are extremely concerned to see these numbers, and urgently ask community members to take the precautions that we know will help keep hospitalizations down,” PeaceHealth’s Northwest network’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi said in the release. “At the top of that list are receiving a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot if you have been vaccinated already and, of course, getting your first dose if you have so far chosen not to.”
According to the most recent report from the Whatcom County Health Department, all 17 hospitalizations reported Dec. 19-24 were among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents. The Herald’s archives of data reported by the county health department show that 82% of the 410 COVID-related hospitalizations reported since Aug. 22 have been among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person is still considered “fully vaccinated” two weeks after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Booster and third doses are not yet factored in.
Though Karlapudi said in the release that two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are “highly effective” against earlier strains of COVID-19, including the delta variant, they have been proven less effective against the omicron variant.
A booster shot has been shown to “dramatically increase protection against omicron,” Karlapudi said.
“Early studies on the omicron variant are finding that it causes less severe symptoms than previous strains, which is good news,” Karlapudi said in the release. “However, the flip side is that omicron is extremely contagious, causing varying levels of illness among both the unvaccinated and vaccinated. We are preparing for the potential for a large surge in hospitalizations.”
Those preparations, according to the release, include reviewing all scheduled surgical procedures on a case-by-case-basis beginning Monday, and that a majority of surgeries are likely to be rescheduled to ensure the hospital has adequate resources for the increasing COVID cases. Patients will be notified if their surgeries are going to be rescheduled.
“It is essential that our hospital maintain the capacity and resources to provide a high level of care to all patients who need it, whether they are coming to us with COVID-19, a heart attack or a traumatic injury,” Karlapudi said in the release. “We need the community’s help to ensure we can continue to do this by protecting themselves and each other against COVID.”
To help with that effort, the hospital asks Whatcom County residents to:
▪ Avoid large gatherings where you cannot maintain a safe distance.
▪ If you plan to travel or be in a gathering where there may be unvaccinated people, consider being tested for COVID-19.
▪ Wear a mask whenever you are in a public indoor space or crowded outdoor area or if you are in an area with unvaccinated people or people with uncertain vaccination status.
▪ Maintain good social distance practices for people outside your immediate family or social circle.
The Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard reported six new hospitalizations when it was last updated on Thursday.
With 1,030 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic, Whatcom saw 22 new hospitalizations reported last week, according to the state dashboard.
Whatcom also had a COVID-related hospitalization rate of 7.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed data between Dec. 15 and 21, according to the dashboard. That is unchanged from a week previous (Dec. 8 to 14).
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 9:37 AM.
