MIDLAND, Texas — A year ago around this time, hospitals in West Texas were seeing high numbers of cases of COVID-19.
However, this fall Midland Memorial Hospital and Medical Center Hospital are happy to report cases are significantly down.
Medical Center Hospital is reporting 10 patients in house. Midland Memorial has just one, compared to the 36 it had this time last year.
"I believe we were on an uptick but we’re always monitoring and we can always flip the switch on our masking policy and our screening policies if our numbers in our community transmission rates does rise to medium or high and follow our policy we have in place for this," said Val Sparks, Infection Preventionist at Midland Memorial Hospital.
Though even with cases down, MMH is still prepared for any changes at any time.
"We are always monitoring for symptoms with our staff, we're monitoring through the emergency room with our patients. We do continue to test with any respiratory systems," said Sparks.
Along with proper monitoring and testing, they are also up to date with their equipment.
"We feel pretty secure right now, our PPE is in good shape and we stand ready for whatever respiratory virus that wants to invade us at any point now," Sparks said.
Sparks recognizes that COVID-19 may be an ongoing ordeal and that's why they'll always stay prepared at Midland Memorial.
"It’s an ongoing endemic thing that we’re going to have to deal and I feel very confident in our ability to handle this in the future," said Sparks.