Officials speak on drop in COVID-19 hospitalization
Officials from area hospitals spoke about the continued decrease of hospitalization numbers surrounding the coronavirus during Wednesday morning’s COVID-19 news conference hosted by the city of Amarillo.
In its Wednesday report card, the city reported a decrease of 75 net active cases in Potter and Randall Counties from Tuesday. A total increase of 60 cases brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in the two counties to 3,203, 2,063 of which are currently active. The city has also reported more than 1,100 total recoveries in the two counties.
According to the report card, there have been a total of 19,075 conducted COVID-19 tests reported to the city’s public health department, 763 of which are currently pending.
Brian Weis, the chief medical officer at the Northwest Texas Health Care System, said his hospital has seen a reduction in the number of positive COVID-19 cases by one or two a day since about the second week of April. Currently, Northwest Texas has 15 confirmed positive cases in the hospital, seven of which are in the intensive care unit (ICU). Two of those in the ICU are on ventilators.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that the trends over the last couple of weeks have been very encouraging,” he said.
At BSA Health System, Michael Lamanteer, the system’s chief medical officer, said there has also been a gradual decline of COVID-19 positive inpatients. Currently, there are 19 positive patients in the facility, seven of which are in the ICU. Six of the patients in the ICU are on ventilators.
Mark Rielo, the acting director at the Amarillo VA Health Care System, said during the conference his hospital has gone two weeks without having COVID-19 positives being admitted in the hospital. They are monitoring 11 positive cases in home quarantine and have six additional individuals under investigation for the virus.
During the conference, Amarillo Public Health Director Casie Stoughton gave an update on the testing occurring of staff and residents at area nursing homes, as well as testing of Potter and Randall County residents at the JBS Plant in Moore County.
Stoughton said 2,320 tests have been conducted at the 14 nursing homes in the two counties. In the 73 percent of results which have been reported, six percent of tests have come back positive and 67 percent have come back negative.
There has been a total of 821 residents from Potter and Randall counties tested at the JBS plant. Sixty-two percent of those tests have come back negative and 20 percent have come back positive, with 19 percent of the tests still pending.
Stoughton said she is encouraged by the low positivity results from the testing at the nursing homes and from the area residents at the JBS plant. There are some potential positive cases that may start to come in from get-togethers on Memorial Day.
Stoughton encouraged individuals -- as outdoor events, including in-person graduation ceremonies, start to ramp up -- to continue to practice prevention measures related to COVID-19.
“Any time that we are in groups, it’s good to have six feet of distance, to be wearing our masks,” she said. “If you are sick, just don’t go. I think that’s the key, to be thoughtful of the others who are going to be there.”
With the recent trend in numbers, Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson believes people are beginning to adjust to living in a COVID-19 world. While the city remains at Level Red, the highest alert level for COVID-19, Nelson said city officials believe the city will go back to Level Orange soon.
“I feel good about where we are as a city. I think it will be appropriate for us to go back to level orange pretty quickly,” she said. “I think this will be a useful tool. No one knows how long we are going to live in a COVID-19 restricted world, until we have vaccines and medicines to treat this virus. But what we can do as a city, I hope, is provide you as a citizen the tool for these color levels that tells you when you might need to pull back in your business or when you might need to be extra aware, extra cautious for your family. As we develop this tool, we will communicate it to you more.”
The next COVID-19 news conference will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 10, and can be accessed at www.amarillo.gov/live. For more information on the city’s response to COVID-19, visit www.amarilloalerts.com.
