A report on the current COVID testing numbers was given at the County Board of Health meeting today by Shannon Ernst, director of social services. As of yesterday, there were 246 active positive cases in the community, making a total of 746 positives since March.
There have been 12 confirmed deaths due to the COVID-19 virus and 464 people have recovered from the virus. There are currently eight people hospitalized at Banner Churchill Hospital with COVID.
During the virtual meeting, Dr. Brent Aikin reported on the current status at Banner Churchill Community Hospital, reviewing “what we have developed for a surge plan and where we are within that at this time,” he said. “Yesterday we were in the upper end of phase 2 and this morning things have changed significantly and at the moment the facility is operating at 140% of capacity, meaning we have 24 patients in the med-surge and a total of eight patients who are COVID positive at this time.”
He said there are four patients in the ICU, two are COVID positive, and three are on ventilators. Aikin said the emergency department is also seeing an increase in activity with 55 to 80 patients a day with about 50% of those patients over the past three days being COVID positive.
The hospital has two rapid-test machines that take about 20 minutes to process the test, giving them the capacity to run roughly 45 tests per day.
“The biggest worry we have at the hospital is really the ICU patients,” he said. “The average amount of time a COVID patient remains on a ventilator is ten days.” The hospital has five ventilators available and three auxiliary machines that they are able to use to provide ventilator services.
“If we go into phase three we will have to expand the ICU into eight beds and I think we can do that, but one of the rate-limiting steps in this process is staffing,” said Aikin. “What we’re looking at from a regional stand-point is ominous, quite honestly.”
In a press release held yesterday, November 24th, by the Banner corporate facility in Arizona, Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer at Banner Health, gave a media update saying the forecasting tool used by the hospital system, “paints a very dark picture for this winter.”
The hospital is experiencing a shortage in staffing, and recently across their hospitals, have secured over 1,000 staff to assist with the surge which she says will peak the first week of December. Throughout their facilities Banner will be hiring 900 more staff. Bessel said “the entire country is surging at the same time. During a normal winter there are 14,000 openings and this year, as of last week there were 20,000 positions open. This paints a picture of the entire country looking for the same staff that every health system in every state is looking for.”
Aikin said Banner Churchill currently has four staff out right now, with one “surg tech and one respiratory therapist out indefinitely.”
Regionally, between the Reno and Carson facilities for the past two weeks, Aikin said, “we’ve been on a rolling divert and there have been times when they have not been able to accept a patient and we’ve had to keep patients here that we would have like to have sent for care.” He said at this point some of the consultations are done remotely through the television set in each room so the consultant in Reno or Phoenix can see the patient and discuss things with them.
“I talked to Renown last week, they are doing the best they can, but it’s a little bit bleak right now,” said Aikin. “Our facility is doing fine, we have a plan in place and are taking care of patients they way we always do, but today is a little bit more of a challenge.”
He expressed his appreciation for the work of the county health board, saying, “The way this community pulls together, Shannon, Dr. McDonald, and Jim Barbee and the work everyone has been doing for the community, we at the hospital have benefitted significantly.”
Ernst reported that as of last night, the county has administered 7,036 tests during the community testing at the fairgrounds and has seen a jump in the number of tests being given. She said three weeks ago they averaged 120 tests a day and now are seeing up to 300 a day. Because of this increase, and in order to lessen the strain put on the state lab each Tuesday and Thursday, the county will be expanding the community testing beginning December 1st to five days a week.
Mayor Ken Tedford attended the meeting on behalf of the City of Fallon and thanked Ernst and County Manager Jim Barbee for “being at the tip of the spear and thank you for all you’re doing.”
“My fear is that the community at large does not have the same sense of caution that we have and this has somehow gotten politicized for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “We are at risk right now with this surge.”
With the doubling of the deaths in the community, Tedford said this is about people being safe. “We’re having to make decisions people don’t like, but it’s about the health and safety of the people who live here in this community, and the message has to get out.”
He said he realizes that this has gone on so long that people are discouraged and tired and want it to be over. “We all feel the same, we are all frustrated and discouraged not being able to be with our families at Thanksgiving, I get it, but those numbers are frightening and you’re not even going to get admitted in Reno if we’re full here,” said Tedford.
County Commissioner Pete Olsen said he echoes the comments made by the Mayor and has the same concerns about public apathy about this issue. He also expressed the need to publicize the requirements for the COVID vaccine and said today was the first day he had heard that a flu shot would be required before a COVID vaccine could be administered. “It is important we get the word out,” he said.
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