Lorain County health officials urge caution as COVID cases surge

Lorain Countians may be tired of wearing a mask and physically distancing, but as case numbers rise, health officials are urging people to continue. Mercy Health Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Gil Palmer said that those messages from early on in the pandemic cannot be let up on as the hospital system and county sees a significant uptick in cases. On Tuesday, Ohio reported over 6,000 new cases statewide. On Thursday, that number shot up to over 7,000 new cases, and on Friday, there were over 8,000 new cases. In Lorain County, cases have begun increasing by the hundreds. Just a couple months ago, the county would average seven to 10 cases a day. "We have to be wearing masks, we have to be socially distancing and having hand hygiene," he said. "As those things break down, the virus has the potential to overwhelm the community for sure. The community as a whole, if we don't buckle down, will face closures, will face quarantining and government mandates. I don't think there's any way around that." Across the state, hospital beds are filling up. University Hospitals Elyria President Dr. Kristi Sink said her hospital is no different. The medical center was able to open up an unoccupied floor, which allowed for more room. But in the last couple weeks, Sink said UH has seen record visits to the emergency department. ICU beds are filling up, but the beds are not full yet, she said. "We expect things are going to continue to get worse," Sink said. "That's what we're planning for. (On Thursday) there were 7,100 new cases of COVID in Ohio. If you go back just a couple weeks prior to that, we were in the low couple of thousands. ... We are seeing the spread exponentially grow, so it's going to take all of us to step back to level that growth." Mercy Health and UH both said they still have the capacity to continue treating both COVID and non-COVID patients. Neither would say how many COVID patients each hospital has, citing privacy concerns. Palmer said Mercy Health monitors its numbers of both COVID and non-COVID patients throughout the day, and its officials feel comfortable with hospital capacity. But if cases progressively worsen across the state, Palmer said it could cripple hospital systems across Ohio. This latest surge is slightly different from the first one in March, Sink said. In March, she said worries revolved around getting access to PPE, but now they're concerned about having enough staff to handle the surge. UH has put a compensation initiative in place to reward staff who take on extra shifts. Sink said she knows staying home is a hard message for people to hear, particularly with the holidays coming up. But she said right now, staying home is the safest thing to do. Anything else is a bigger risk. People are tired of the same messages of washing hands, wear a mask and maintain distance, she said. "But it's really those simple things that are going to limit the spread of the infection and allow us to continue providing healthcare services and keep the economy open," Sink said. Community members need to buckle down, Palmer said. It's all too easy for a child to pick up the virus at school, and spread to mom and dad, who in turn spread it to grandma and grandpa, he said. In a letter to the community, Palmer and Mercy Health Market President Ed Oley said social bubbles have grown larger as people become tired of staying home and distancing. Oley and Palmer urged the community to rethink a Thanksgiving filled with people crowded around a table. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, Palmer said. With vaccine trials showing positive results, it could be as soon as early next year that it becomes available. For the first time, Sink said there is optimism in the science community. Once the vaccine becomes available, she said UH will be out in the community trying to educate people about it. Until that happens, Palmer said the virus is still deadly and still out in the community. "Hang in there," he said. "Hang in there. The end is in sight. The cure is in sight; the vaccine is in sight. And if we continue to be diligent for the next several months, and particularly around the holiday season, untold lives will be saved." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.