By Andy East | The Republic
COVID-19 hospitalizations at Columbus Regional Hospital have remained high after surpassing 50 earlier this week.
Updated figures from the hospital show that 52 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday — the highest since Jan. 4 and just seven shy of the all-time record of 59 set on Dec. 2, 2020.
By Wednesday morning, coronavirus hospitalizations had ticked down to 42 with five patients listed in critical condition, the hospital said.
However, CRH officials have said hospital admissions tend to increase over the course of the day. For instance, the hospital reported 46 hospitalizations Monday morning, but that number later climbed to 52.
At least two children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 over the past week, as well as at least two people in their 20s, three people in their 30s and four people in their 40s, hospital records show. Almost all of those hospitalized on Wednesday morning were 50 or older.
CRH has said that the vast majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated.
The steep increase in hospitalizations at CRH echoes trends being reported across much of the state, where hospitalizations are approaching their highest levels since early January.
There were 2,642 people hospitalized in Indiana with COVID-19 on Monday, slightly more than the entire population of the town of Hope and up from 1,209 on Nov. 6.
By comparison, hospitalizations never exceeded 2,687 during the initial delta surge over the summer.
Nearly 97% of cases sequenced by state health officials have tested positive for the delta variant, according to the Indiana Department of Health. No cases of the omicron variant had been confirmed in Indiana as of Wednesday morning.
As of Tuesday morning, 41% of eligible Bartholomew County residents had yet get vaccinated — roughly 31,900 people.
