Nevada and Washoe County are seeing an unprecedented surge of COVID-19 cases. Washoe County has 14,106 active cases and it is averaging 1,004.6 new daily cases over the last seven days. The high number of cases is sending more people to the hospital.
"We are seeing an increased number of COVID-positive patients in our community," Dr. Richard Bryan, Chief Medical Officer for Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center said. "Almost all of it is related to the Omicron variant. We are seeing some increased hospitalizations in our community, as we are seeing across the country."
The current surge in cases is much higher than the previous peak in late 2020. However, there are not as many hospitalizations, so far.
Nevada's highest average of new daily cases during the first wave was 2,757 on December 11, 2020. The most confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations in one day was 1,857 on December 15, 2020. So far, January 10, 2022 has the highest average of daily new cases with 4,705. Despite much higher case counts, the most hospitalizations of the current wave is 1,576 on January 13. The highest number of hospitalizations for Washoe County during the previous peak was 312. Today, it is 112. Officials say vaccines and the new variant are big reasons for the lower hospitalization rate.
"Probably the most important things is that vaccinations work," Bryan said. "If we were in a community where there were no vaccinations, we would be completely overwhelmed, so it's just another piece of the puzzle that tells us that vaccinations work."
"We're not seeing people as acutely sick or severely ill as we did with previous variants, so far," Melanie Morris, Director of the Renown Transfer Operations Center said. "I think that's a testament to folks getting the vaccine, giving people more protection."
Officials for both hospitals say almost all of their COVID patients are not fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, Omicron is much more contagious and that is why we are having so many cases. That is causing thousands of people to miss work, including people in the health care industry.
"That's a real challenge, right now," Morris said. "We certainly are having, just like the rest of the community, our employees, our doctors, our nurses, all the frontline providers and support service folks are also getting infected. The community is counting on us to be there for them when they are sick, so we've got to keep our beds open, our workforce intact as much as we can."
Hospitals have protocols in place to make sure they are keeping COVID-positive employees isolated and to get tested as quickly as possible.
"If they turn out to be negative, we get them back into the workforce, so we're capable of taking care of the patients that we have," Bryan said.
Bryan says the data may be premature but that it appears that people who are hospitalized are not getting as sick as they were, earlier in the pandemic. The total number of hospitalizations is high and emergency rooms are also busy.
"There's things, other than COVID, that we're seeing like always, the strokes, the traumas, the heart attacks, so we're trying to keep our ERs open for those severely ill people, as well," Morris said.
Some people have put off going to the doctor for things like heart ailments and cancer diagnoses during the pandemic. Bryan says people should not delay doctor visits for those health issues.
"Patients need to know that if they need medical care, Saint Mary's is a safe place to get that care and we encourage them to seek the care that they need," Bryan said.
Emergency rooms are intended for people who are actually having a medical emergency. People are encouraged to go to a primary care physician or an urgent care for non-emergencies, including for COVID testing.
Most of Nevada's hospitalizations are in Clark County. Washoe County typically lags behind southern Nevada by a couple of weeks, so it is possible that hospitals could still increase even more by the end of the month.
