Baptist Health Lexington saw a peak in admissions last week at 120 patients, according to Dr. Mark Doughtery, an infectious disease specialist. On Monday that number was 113.
Doughtery said about 40% of those patients are admitted for other reasons.
“They're here for diverticulitis or kidney infection or appendicitis, and incidentally, they have been found to have COVID, too,” he said. “So I think that tells us how prevalent it is in the community. It's ubiquitous, it's everywhere.”
Dougherty along with doctors from Saint Joseph Health, UK Children’s Hospital and UK Health Care urged the community to wear better masks — either an N95 or KN95.
“But both of these masks are more effective in preventing you from giving the infection to someone else,” Dougherty said. “So I think we need to step up our game a little bit and use better masks in the hospital and out of the hospital too.”
Dan Goulson, a doctor and chief medical officer for CHI Saint Joseph Health said hospitals haven’t quite seen the same level of patients admitted during the delta fall surge.
“But the rate of acceleration as has picked up over the past week or two. Today between the two hospitals we have right around 100 patients,” Goulson said.
The University of Kentucky has seen hospitalization increases and has reached approximately the same number of patients it had during the delta surge. Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates, chief medical officer for inpatient and emergency services at UK HealthCare, said people who are vaccinated are also being admitted.
“And those folks are mostly in our incredibly vulnerable immune suppressed group. So our transplant population, our folks on active chemo, our patients who have diseases that don't allow their bodies to mount appropriate antibody responses to all the vaccines,” she said.
UK Children’s Hospital also continues admitting more pediatric patients. In some patients, Dr. Lindsay Ragsdale, interim chief medical officer at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, said symptoms are mild. But that’s not always the case.
“That's the piece that we're still struggling with. Some kids have underlying lung problems or just might be unlucky and have a more severe case that are getting hospitalized,” Ragsdale said. “They come in dehydrated or needing oxygen. And this is really difficult for the whole family.”
Last week, the Biden Administration announced plans to make COVID-19 tests and N95 masks widely available and free. COVID-19 masks can be ordered here.
