COVID-19 cases have continued climbing to all-time high levels in Surry County, to the point that case numbers are outpacing local health department workers’ ability to keep track of the spread. As a result, the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center will be suspending its COVID-19 dashboard on the Surry County website.
The jump in local cases comes as the first vaccines for the virus began distribution nationwide, with a few doses slated for arrival in Surry County this week.
Sunday, the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center reported 373 active coronavirus cases in the county, the single highest number of active cases since the pandemic first spread to Surry County in March. By Tuesday, the case numbers had jumped to more than 400, with another 115 positive cases referred to the local office from the state health department yet to be investigated.
“Due to the increased amount of cases, we can’t keep up with accurately reporting numbers on the dashboard. We are going to direct everyone to the NC DHHS website for the latest data,” said Maggie Simmons, assistant health director with the Surry County center. “We have reached a pivotal point where the virus is spreading so quickly we are having a difficult time keeping up.”
All totaled, Surry County had recorded 3,324 confirmed cases of the virus, with 55 deaths, as of Sunday. Those figures came on the heels of single-day highs of new local cases, with 63 recorded on Dec. 9 and then again on Dec. 10. As of Tuesday, the state website showed 3,527 total cases in Surry County.
Northern Regional Hospital in Mount Airy reported on Tuesday it had 27 patients in the hospital suffering from COVID-19, with seven of the hospital’s ten intensive care unit beds filled by COVID-19 patients. Both numbers are near record highs.
Ashly Lancaster, director of marketing for the hospital, said Northern also is seeing a continued climb in the number of staff testing positive, though she declined to give the number.
The first shipments of the vaccine developed by Pfizer were released for nationwide distribution Monday, with Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin due to receive its first shipment on Thursday, though members of the general public could still be months away from receiving the vaccine.
“Hugh Chatham is one of the few non-system hospitals that qualified to receive vaccines this week, largely because we have one of the ultra-low temperature freezers required to safely house the vaccine for an extended period of time,” said Laura Oakes, director of marketing and medical staff development at the Elkin facility.
Oakes said the hospital will “continue to follow the latest guidelines from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services in our overall pandemic response – vaccination priority is no exception.”
That means the vaccine doses due at the hospital this week will go to clinical and medical staff and others in roles that directly support patient care first, followed by employees in support roles who do not typically work in a clinical environment.
She said the hospital has not been designated as a community vaccination provider, “though (we) will remain positioned to support as supply and needs continue to evolve.”
Lancaster, at Northern Regional Hospital, said her facility has not yet been approved to receive the Pfizer vaccine, but she anticipates that will likely change. She explained that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services requires hospitals and other facilities receiving the vaccines to provide documentation they have a cold-storage unit required to store the vaccines.
“That arrived for us last week, we’ve sent them that verification, and we’re just waiting for the state to allocate (the vaccine) for us,” she said,
Simmons said the health and nutrition center will not be receiving any doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but a similar vaccine created by another biotechnology company will likely be available to them soon.
“Health departments will be receiving the Moderna vaccine when it is approved because the storage requirements are a bit less stringent than those of the Pfizer vaccine,” she said. The Moderna vaccine does not require the super-cold units for storage — about -4 degrees Fahreinheit compared to -94 degrees for Pfizer/BioNTech.
Lancaster said her hospital also is looking for an allotment from Moderna once that receives approval for distribution. That emergency FDA approval is expected on Thursday.
As is the case with Hugh Chatham, she said Northern will be following CDC guidelines, which call for front-line medical and support staff to receive the vaccine first, followed by other staffers.
She explained that it’s important for people to realize the vaccines require two doses several weeks apart, and they cannot be mixed. In other words, if someone receives the Pfizer vaccine, then the second vaccination they receive must be one created by Pfizer.
Once hospital and other front-line medical workers receive vaccinations, over the coming weeks and months the vaccinations will gradually be produced and distributed for general population use, first going to nursing home and high-risk individuals, then to others.
Oakes, from Hugh Chatham, said many of the nursing and residential homes identified as priority in the first phase of the vaccination rollout will receive those vaccinations through a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens.
Because of the enormous numbers of vaccine doses that must be produced to reach everyone throughout the nation and world, health care officials are saying it could be well into 2021 before most of the nation’s residents might be able to receive the vaccination.
In the meantime, they are urging individuals to adhere to scientifically proven means of slowing the virus spread through mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding crowds, and frequent hand-washing.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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