‘It’s a little scary’: COVID-19 hospitalizations rise in Beaufort Co. before Christmas
COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising around Beaufort County as state leaders warn residents to follow public health guidelines this week or risk a “staggering” number of additional infections.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital was treating almost 30 coronavirus-positive patients as of Monday, according to CEO Russell Baxley. The 12-bed intensive care unit was “staying full,” Baxley added Monday, though he stressed that COVID-19 patients weren’t the only ones in the ICU.
Spokesperson Courtney McDermott said there were eight people in the ICU early Thursday. Six of them were positive for COVID-19.
The hospital as of Dec. 4 was treating just 11 coronavirus patients. Two of those people were in the ICU at the time.
“It’s a little scary,” Baxley told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “The one difference is we feel very much more prepared to deal with this.”
The medical center’s COVID-19 numbers are now closer to those recorded during the summer. But Baxley said the recent uptick doesn’t rival the surge of COVID-19 patients in July, when doctors were treating more than 40 people, at points.
“We understand the disease a little bit better; we understand what to do when someone presents critically ill,” he said. “We feel like we’re in a good place with PPE and lab testing internally.”
But the holidays could create problems, Baxley acknowledged. It all depends on whether a large number of people contract the pathogen in the next week or two.
That’s why it’s important for residents to practice social distancing and wear a face mask when in public, Baxley said, until COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone sometime in 2021.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital began to inoculate employees this week with over 1,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine.
‘Help us’
The rise in hospitalizations isn’t specific to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals had 13 COVID-19 patients as of about 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns the two medical centers. Four of those people were in ICU beds.
There were nine coronavirus patients at the hospitals on Dec. 4. None was in an ICU bed.
COVID-19 admissions, meanwhile, are surging in other parts of South Carolina, worrying health care leaders in the Midlands and Upstate.
Hospitalizations for the disease as of Monday had jumped about 50% over the course of two weeks at Prisma Health hospitals in the Midlands, a Prisma doctor told reporters earlier this week.
And the number of COVID-19 patients at hospitals statewide totaled 1,671 as of Wednesday, marking a 97.9% increase in admissions from a month ago, according to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control data.
Hospital leaders from five major Upstate medical centers pleaded with residents on Monday to heed warnings and limit gatherings during the holiday season, pointing to what they say is an already troubling post-Thanksgiving spike.
“We understand the public is tired of living in this pandemic. Our healthcare team is also tired. Our hospitals are filling up, and we are imploring the community to help us during this surge,” wrote Dr. Christopher Lombardozzi, chief medical officer of the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, in a statement Monday.
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 4:55 AM.
