GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Today, 290 people are in Spectrum Health system hospitals with COVID-19. That is a 20 percent increase from the week before during this surge. The positivity rate is about 16.4 percent.
Tina Freese Decker, Spectrum Health's President and CEO, said they are hopeful they reached surge peak last weekend. However, that does not mean the region is out of the woods yet. Freese Decker said the dominant strain is now the B.1.1.7 variant, which is 50 to 70 percent more contagious.
"Today was the first day that I can remember where finally it felt like things were maybe easing, we saw a little drop," said Darryl Elmouchi, President of Spectrum Health West Michigan. "So we think, based on what Tina described, based on the positivity rates, even though this is lagging, we think we might be headed down a bit. But I don't want anyone to be lulled into a false sense of security here. This absolutely is both real and could easily jump back up if people let their guard down."
The trend of seeing younger populations admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 also continues. Elmouchi said the average age of those admitted is 57, nearly a decade younger than the previous surge. 15 percent of those people currently are under the age of 40.
More children are also being admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 symptoms. Helen DeVos Children's Hospital has 10 children admitted to inpatient care with COVID-19. Five of them are in the intensive care unit. The president of the hospital, Hossain Marandi, said many of them did not have underlying conditions.
"From my point of view, as a general pediatrician, as a father of two young kids," said Marandi, "kids cannot get vaccinated under 16. We still do not have that vaccination for them. So, it really comes down to us as adults, needing to do everything that we can to help them and keep them well. That means wearing our mask. That means modeling good safety behaviors, such as getting a vaccine."
Meanwhile, the hospital leaders push for those able to get vaccines to do so. At a previous update about three weeks ago, Freese Decker said they had yet to treat patients fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Now, Elmouchi said they have treated 16. However, that number needs to be examined more closely. Only seven of the 16 came to Spectrum Health hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms. The other nine were found through screening testing. Elmouchi said they could have been patients coming in for appendicitis or a broken leg, not actually suffering from COVID-19 symptoms.
"This should tell us that these vaccines, first of all, compared to the number of patients that we've admitted overall with COVID-19, are incredibly effective," said Elmouchi. "And if someone were to have COVID, the likelihood of having severe disease, as was shown in those clinical trials, remains incredibly low."
Mortality rate in COVID-19 patients is about 5 percent. However, Elmouchi said that is a lagging metric, and he anticipates that number to go up in coming weeks.
"I can tell you that we have absolutely seen mortality in a younger demographic than we did during the prior surge," said Elmouchi, "including people that have died, that were young and otherwise healthy, under the age of 40."
As for lasting effects and symptoms of the virus, Elmouchi said they are in the process of building a multidisciplinary clinic. He said long-term effects will continue to be a public health issue for the country, and even the world, long after the pandemic is done.
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