COVID-19 hospitalizations at Columbus Regional Hospital have soared over the past two weeks — including the number of patients requiring intensive care — reaching their highest levels since this past winter driven by the highly transmissible delta variant.
On Monday, there were 18 people hospitalized with COVID-19 at CRH — up from four hospitalizations two weeks ago and the highest since Feb. 5, the hospital said. Hospitalizations had ticked down to 15 as of Tuesday morning, though that number could increase as more people get admitted and pending test results come back.
The number of COVID-19 patients in CRH’s intensive care unit also has dramatically increased over roughly the past two weeks.
On Tuesday morning, there were five COVID-19 patients in the ICU — up from one patient nearly two weeks ago and the highest total since late January, according to hospital records.
CRH officials said Tuesday that increase in hospitalizations is “definitely concerning.”
Additionally, the ratio between the number of ICU admissions among those being hospitalized with COVID-19 infections is near as high as it has ever been during the pandemic, which may indicate that the delta variant could be causing more severe illness.
In December, when COVID-19 hospitalizations at CRH reached an all-time high, about 4% of COVID-19 inpatients were in the hospital’s ICU.
On Tuesday morning, about 3.5% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 at CRH were in the ICU, the hospital said.
The increase in local hospitalizations came as the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States crossed 100,000 new confirmed daily infections, a milestone last exceeded during the winter surge, The Associated Press reported.
Health officials fear that cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to soar if more Americans don’t embrace the vaccine, according to wire reports.
Nationwide, 50% of residents are fully vaccinated and more than 70% of adults have received at least one dose.
However, nearly 43% of eligible Bartholomew County residents — about 30,100 people — were not fully vaccinated as of Tuesday morning, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
“Our models show that if we don’t (vaccinate people), we could be up to several hundred thousand cases a day, similar to our surge in early January,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said on CNN this week.
COVID-19 vaccinations in Bartholomew County have picked up over the past month but still remain far below what was seen this past spring.
Last week, a total of 916 vaccine doses were administered to Bartholomew County residents, up from 824 the week before and the third consecutive week of slight increases, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
By comparison, from early March to mid-May, the numbers of doses given to Bartholomew County residents per week generally hovered between around 3,400 and 4,600, reaching a peak of 5,629 the week of April 4.
