ECRMC says its COVID surge has relented
EL CENTRO — El Centro Regional Medical Center’s number of COVID- 19 inpatients has dropped by 19 over the course of eight days.
On July 20, the hospital had an inpatient count of 62. On Tuesday, it had an inpatient count of 43, the hospital announced via its Facebook page.
This is the fewest COVID patients it has had so far in the month of July. This also serves as a bookend in a surge of patients the hospital recently experienced.
On July 10, the hospital had 44 patients. That number steadily increased until the July 20 count of 62, which steadily declined over the next eight days to the current total.
The last time the hospital had 43 patients was June 19. Since May 21, the hospital’s lowest reported inpatient count has been 36 ( May 29).
The 62 patients was nearly the hospital’s highest total since the pandemic. The top day was in May, when the hospital had more than 65 COVID patients hospitalized.
During a COVID- 19 update video via Facebook Live on Friday, ECRMC’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Tomaszewski expressed his pleasure in seeing the hospital’s lowered COVID patient count.
“I want to thank the public for doing a great job,” he said. “We’re seeing some control to the numbers. The numbers were escalating like crazy. So thank you so much for keeping your physical distancing. Thank you so much for wearing your mask.
I think it’s working.”
Overall, there were 89 hospitalized COVID patients in Imperial County as of Tuesday, plus a 90th case that was suspected but unconfirmed.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 9,189 confirmed local cases, of which 1,042 still considered active. There have been 188 deaths attributed to the disease, mostly from the senior population. There have been seven deaths confirmed among patients younger than 50 and none younger than 30.