Most COVID hospitalizations in Lexington are unvaccinated patients, experts say
As the omicron variant for COVID-19 continues to surge through Kentucky, more and more people are being hospitalized with severe symptoms stemming from the deadly virus.
On Tuesday, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department reported 1,724 new COVID cases from Dec. 30 to Jan 3, bringing the city’s seven-day rolling average up to nearly 400. On Monday Gov. Andy Beshear announced a new record for daily cases with 6,441 reported on Dec. 30, beating the previous record by nearly 700.
Doctors from Lexington hospitals gathered on a Zoom call with the media on Tuesday to express their concern with the rising cases and how it’s affecting their hospitals. While each had different situations and stories to share, all expressed the same request: get vaccinated.
“The vaccines work and provide really great immunity for most folks and are helping to prevent hospitalizations,” said Ashley Montgomery-Yates said, chief medical officer for inpatient and emergency services at UK HealthCare.
UK’s hospital had nearly 100 COVID-positive patients as of Tuesday morning, 34 of which are in the ICU, per Montgomery-Yates. 88% of the patients in the ICU with COVID are unvaccinated.
The numbers are similar at other area hospitals. There are upwards of 80 COVID patients at Baptist Health Lexington, according to David Dougherty, infectious disease expert with Baptist Health. 50 of those patients are in the ER.
Dougherty said Baptist Health is postponing and scaling back in-patient elective surgeries due to the hospital’s added population.
“We’re prioritizing urgent and emergent cases,” Dougherty said. “And that’s for in-patient. We’re still doing out-patient elective surgeries.”
At the St. Joseph and St. Joseph East Hospitals, there are 57 patients with COVID, according to Dan Goulson, chief medical officer with CHI Saint Joseph Health. 19 of those patients are in the ICU, 10 of which are currently on a ventilator.
The rapid spread of the omicron variant has been a big contributor in the rise of patients in the hospital. The experts said the newest variant does not have as severe of symptoms as other variants but spreads more rapidly than the others.
“But still, patients are getting really, really sick from this particular virus,” Goulson said. “It hits patients who are not vaccinated harder than it does patients who are vaccinated.”
All three of the doctors said most of the COVID patients in their hospitals are unvaccinated, and most of the vaccinated patients don’t have their booster shot. They continued to press for people to get vaccinated who are not already.
“The best time to get vaccinated, if you’re not vaccinated, is today, whenever today is,” Goulson said. “It takes a little while for there to be an effect from the vaccine, and if you make the choice to do it, the sooner you can get it done, the better off you’ll be.”
Children with COVID
Lindsay Ragsdale, the interim chief medical officer at Kentucky Children’s Hospital said there are less than five patients with COVID at the Kentucky Children’s Hospital as of Tuesday morning, but that number was above 10 just recently.
Most of those patients were unvaccinated, Ragsdale said.
“We do worry that based on other state’s experiences that Omicron can affect children and it can cause them to have trouble breathing and need hospitalizations,” Ragsdale said. “We are really encouraging families that if you’re on the fence to please consider vaccinations.”
With kids in Fayette County going back to school on Tuesday, Ragsdale also wanted to remind parents and students to wear masks while in the classroom, saying it could make the difference between going to class or going to the hospital.
“We are really concerned that we have kids that are coming back to school, Omicron is highly contagious and we want to protect the kids of Kentucky the best we can,” Ragsdale said.
Testing
The experts also advised the importance of getting tested and confirming a COVID case or not to prevent the spread of the virus. Finding a test has proved to be difficult as of recent, and the doctors offered no special advice besides just being aggressive with their search for a test.
“I would encourage you to just look, and you can find them,” Montgomery-Yates said.
Montgomery-Yates said the federal government is ramping up production in tests, which could lead to greater availability in a couple of months.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 3:44 PM.
