MIDLAND, Texas — The surge after the holidays is affecting the hospitals in more ways than one. Health leaders across the United States continue to see spikes in the number of hospitalizations and the number of people testing positive for the virus.
In the Permian Basin, hospitalizations are also on a rise. Two weeks ago, back on January 4th, Midland Memorial Hospital reported 62 patients with the virus. As of January 18, there are 103 patients hospitalized with the virus at this hospital.
Over in Odessa, MCH reported 47 total COVID-19 patients hospitalized with the virus on the first Tuesday of 2022. On Tuesday, 101 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 at MCH.
Stephen Bowerman, Senior Vice president and Chief Operating Officer at Midland Memorial Hospital, said they are seeing an increase in the number of deaths due to virus.
"So far, in January, we have 18 deaths," said Bowerman. "If you put that in perspective, into the last couple of months, we had 21 total deaths in the month of December and 15 deaths in the month of November. We are seeing an increase in deaths in this surge as well.
Bowerman said the surge also taking a toll on health care workers.
"56 employees are out that are COVID positive," said Bowerman. "We have another 70 that have been exposed that are self-monitoring themselves, but are at work today."
Bowerman said that due to the limited space in the hospital, transfers from smaller communities are not a choice.
"Through a system we have in the Permian Basin, we will let other hospitals know, especially smaller hospitals know, when we have space available," said Bowerman. "We are full and are unable to take transfers at that time. We have been in that position for most of the last two years."
Hospital leaders continue to emphasize the importance of the same COVID-19 precautions that were in place at the beginning of the pandemic and encourage people to get vaccinated and get the booster shots.
"30% of the population in the hospitals currently is "fully vaccinated" in the context of having two vaccines," said Dr. Lawrence Wilson, Vice president of Medical Affairs for MMH. "Only two or three percent of the hospital population right now has been vaccinated, fully vaccinated, and boosted."
Leaders at MMH said they have received some state staffing support over the last week. As of Tuesday, they have 27 state provided staff members. 24 are RNs and three of them are respiratory therapists.