Local hospitals struggle with COVID influx
Polk schools implement monitoring system to determine best safety practices.
“Getting vaccinated is the only way we’re going to get this pandemic under control,” Floyd Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ken Jones said Friday.
Floyd County’s new infections have increased by 84% in the past two weeks and resulting hospitalizations have increased by 158% in the same time period. Polk Medical Center transfers any COVID-19 patients to Floyd Medical Center.
The amount of people getting very sick and needing hospitalization has skyrocketed. As of Friday, 88 people were hospitalized in Floyd County because of a COVID-19 infection, according to the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency.
In Georgia’s healthcare coalition Region C, which includes several counties as well as Floyd and Polk County, 23.3% of all patients being treated are COVID-19 patients, according to the
Georgia Geospatial Data Hub.
In that same region 94.5% of hospital beds are occupied, 85.7% of ICU beds are filled and 88% of emergency department beds are in use. Specialty medical facilities, like ones that have life saving measures for COVID-19 patients, have placed restrictions on who can be admitted because of availability limitations.
The ICU beds at Floyd hospitals are full of mostly COVID-19 patients and an overwhelming number of those patients aren’t vaccinated.
“That’s really what it is, a pandemic of the unvaccinated” Jones said. “There are hospitals in Georgia that are devastated right now.”
Locally, Floyd hospitals are treating patients in the Emergency Room because the hospital doesn’t have available beds.
“It’s making our ER smaller basically,” Jones said.
Add this influx of COVID-19 patients on top of a shortage of staff, he said, and it’s a tough situation to be in. The 20-bed mobile hospital unit loaned by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and located on the FMC campus is full. His advice, get vaccinated. “Vaccines definitely help,” Dr. Jones said. They do not 100% protect you from getting COVID-19. The patients we’ve seen that are vaccinated generally had other health problems.”
School system monitors situation
Last week, Polk School District began implementing the same precautions used during the past school year for any school that has over a 1% COVID-19 positivity rate of their total population, which includes students, faculty and staff.
By Friday, four of the district’s 10 schools fell under this category — Cedartown Middle School, Rockmart Middle School, Northside Elementary and Van Wert Elementary.
Additional precautions at these schools include safety measures such as structured hallway transitions, no water fountains, limited visitors, and eating meals in classrooms.
While unvaccinated employees at the designated schools are required to wear face masks, the choice is optional for vaccinated employees and students but strongly encouraged, according to the district.
Polk School system is keeping track of all cases and the percent of the population at each school through a page on its district website, polk.k12.ga.us. A total of 84 cases were reported on Friday out of a district-wide population of 8,572.
“Our overall numbers remain low in relation to our school and district population. While we had hoped to have more normal day-to-day operations, we feel that using the established 1% threshold will assist us in effectively adjusting as necessary,” read a message from Superintendent Dr. Katie Thomas on the district’s Facebook page.
“We ask that all of our stakeholders do their part by not sending students to school when they are symptomatic. We strongly believe that together we can keep our students in school while providing a safe and healthy learning environment. Thank you for continuing to partner with us in these efforts.”
In an effort to help combat COVID-19 both in schools and the community, Polk School District is partnering with Floyd Health Systems to provide free Pfizer vaccines to anyone who attends high school football games over the next two weeks.
Health professionals with Floyd will be set up to administer the vaccine at both the Rockmart High School football game on Friday, Aug. 20, and at the Cedartown High School football game on Aug. 27. People can go ahead and schedule to get their vaccine at either of these events at bit. ly/footballvaccines.
According to a Johns Hopkins University report published Friday, public health experts, state officials and healthcare providers are warning about a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations among children.
“Concern over the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among younger populations, and the potential for long-term impacts, is amplified by anecdotal evidence the Delta variant might cause more severe disease among children and that many are returning to in-person learning,” the Johns Hopkins report stated.
“These factors, and the fact that about 50 million children remain ineligible for vaccination, places even more importance on utilizing other risk reduction methods, including vaccination among those who are eligible, mask wearing and physical distancing.”
Additional dose authorization
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized an additional COVID-19 vaccination dose for immunocompromised people.
“The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is now recommending that certain patients with weakened immune systems receive an additional dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine,” DPH spokesperson Nancy Nydam said. “The recommendation does not include J&J vaccine recipients at this time.”
While the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in Floyd County has slowly ticked up it remains low at 34% of the population.
The DPH is awaiting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control that defines the conditions for the third dose eligibility and is working to establish protocols for local health departments.
Until that process is established, she said, DPH will hold off on administering third doses, she said.