COLUMBUS, Ohio — Front-line health care workers like Lydia Walters are slogging through yet another wave of COVID-19 infections, albeit a smaller one that could have been prevented.
Walters started as a nurse at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s hospital in Westerville last fall during the height of COVID-19 hospitalizations. While the latest uptick in COVID-19 cases has again strained Walters and her colleagues, this time feels different, she said.
Rather than seeing elderly patients streaming in, she’s seen more younger people and middle-aged patients who are often unvaccinated.
Patients sickened with the virus seem to be faring better than the seniors hospitalized last fall and winter. They’re often there for a few days, but then they’re discharged and sent home.
“When I came into the field last year, it was the middle of the worst of it. It was incredibly exhausting,” she said. “With this wave of patients, I feel very in control of their care. We kind of have a routine down now.”
It’s unclear whether the delta variant — a more contagious strain of COVID-19 — could yield another dramatic surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks and months, as it already has in other states.
If front-line workers like Walters are lucky, vaccinations may keep COVID-19 spikes from overwhelming hospitals like they did last year.
Of the more than 5.9 million Ohioans fully vaccinated for COVID-19 since Jan. 1, 362 have been hospitalized with breakthrough infections and 67 have died, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That means 0.006% of breakthrough infections have resulted in hospitalizations and 0.001% have resulted in someone’s death.
As of Tuesday, 59% of people over the age of 12 in Ohio have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
For vaccinations to prevent a spike comparable to the one that occurred last winter though, more Ohioans may need to take advantage of the shots. Hunter Jefferis, an intensive care unit nurse at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, is hopeful the delta variant and the recent rise in cases will be enough to convince shot stragglers.
“The decision to get vaccinated is not just about you,” Jefferis said. “It has downstream effects on our hospital capacity, our well-being … it affects so many people on the health care team who have to continue to care for these critically ill COVID patients.”
Hospitals see more patients but still fewer than last winter
But the warning signs of a coming Ohio surge may already be visible.
The onset of new cases has climbed in Ohio from around 200 or fewer in late June and early July to a recent high of 2,582 on Aug. 9, state data shows. COVID-positive hospitalizations have risen steadily statewide over the past few weeks, nearly doubling since Aug. 3 from 795 to 1,458 on Monday.
Front-line workers like Lisa Meyers, a respiratory therapist at OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center Downtown, worry that with cases rising it’s just a matter of time until hospitals fill up again.
“We take risks every day with this virus,” Meyers said. “(My colleagues and I) are brave and strong and smart and we don’t really want to do this again. But, most of us are going to.”
While hospitals are not yet full, their capacity is at times dwindling.
Hospital capacity varied widely across central Ohio hospitals the week of Aug. 6, the most recent week for which data is available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services compiled by The Columbus Dispatch.
St. Ann’s, where Walters works, was at 70% capacity, while Mount Carmel East was 72% full, data shows. Wexner Medical Center was nearly 83% full earlier this month and Nationwide Children’s was 71% full.
Inpatient capacity at OhioHealth’s Riverside Methodist Hospital was at 94.6% while it was 90% at the health system’s Doctors Hospital and 93.7% at Grant Medical Center.
“During the peaks of COVID, our hospitals were busy as we cared for those patients,” OhioHealth spokeswoman Katie Logan said via email. “When the COVID numbers would decrease, we would see an increase of other patients. Now, we are seeing a mix of both.”
As COVID-19 threat looms, RSV sickens Columbus-area kids
While COVID-19 cases have reportedly risen nationally among children, that trend has yet to show up locally.
Instead, another common virus has squeezed Nationwide Children’s Hospital in recent weeks. The pediatric hospital is dealing with a rise in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which usually begins circulating more in the fall rather than late summer.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why RSV is showing up again now, but the pandemic is likely the cause, said Dr. Mike Patrick, an emergency department physician at Nationwide Children’s.
With everyone masking up, staying home and keeping their distance, RSV didn’t spread as easily in 2020. Now that more families are getting out and doing things and kids are returning to school and day care, RSV is able to spread, Patrick said.
“No one knows for certain what is driving this,” Patrick said. “But, being isolated and behind masks and then suddenly reintroducing people together really fuels the spread of these viral illnesses.”
The spike in RSV cases is similar to what Nationwide Children’s usually sees at its peak in winter, Patrick said. While it’s elevated the hospital’s patient count, Patrick said it’s not something workers there haven’t handled in the past.
But, Patrick said he worries whether COVID-19 cases could also start showing up more in kids seeking treatment at Nationwide Children’s. So far, no vaccines have been green-lit in the U.S. for kids under the age of 12, though approval could come later this year.
A big jump in COVID cases among Columbus-area kids could push Nationwide Children’s to a point that it has largely avoided during the pandemic. That’s why, Patrick said, children who aren’t inoculated need to stay masked and take precautions until they can get a jab.
“I wonder what winter is going to look like. It’s hard to know. It’s certainly a worry and it’s really a driving force behind the masking,” Patrick said. “We don’t want to let our guard down.”
