DCH Reports Nearly 40 New Coronavirus Hospitalizations In 2 Days

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — DCH Health System on Monday reported adding 18 more new coronavirus inpatients in Northport and Tuscaloosa, a day after it tied its single-day high for new patients. The news also comes amid a disturbing nationwide surge in hospitalizations and new cases that does not yet reflect what many public health experts consider to be an inevitable accompanying wave in the next few weeks due to holiday travel and gatherings.

QUICK FACTS

• DCH Health System added 18 new coronavirus patients Monday, bringing the current total of hospitalizations in Northport and Tuscaloosa to 91.
• As of Monday, DCH had logged 84 new inpatients over the last week.
• The state of Alabama on Monday reported its highest number of hospitalizations since the onset of the pandemic, with 1,717 statewide.
• Tuscaloosa County added 50 new confirmed cases Monday and 1,421 cases to its cumulative total over the last two weeks.

The numbers may be trending in a similar way to the last major influx of hospitalizations for the hospital system in July and August, but DCH says it continues to adapt and fine-tune its response.

DCH Vice President of Marketing and Communications Andy North told Patch on Monday that the system's COVID-19 task force meets several times a week to review the current situation and plan for needs, which recently resulted in a meeting area being converted into a treatment space for observation patients.

"Special air scrubbers were brought in and rooms modified to be able to quickly convert to negative pressure as needed and more staff had been brought in," he said via email. "All these measures and more have made us much more able to respond to the need."

As nationwide spikes in hospitalizations spur local worries for potential capacity issues with the rise in inpatient totals, North explained that there is no specific capacity line for DCH, as there are many factors involved when it comes to bed space and the system's day-to-day capabilities.

"For example, the hospital may be unusually full with non-COVID patients at the time of a surge, which would inhibit our capacity to convert rooms," he said, before encouraging those in the community to wear masks, social distance and wash hands regularly.

The spike in new COVID-19 inpatients for DCH is also in line with state and national trends as public health officials caution of an accompanying surge due to gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Locally, DCH's 91 COVID-19 patients at present is the highest number the hospital system has seen since Aug. 5 when DCH reported 96 inpatients as a spike beginning near the end of July began to wane. During the late summer wave, DCH topped out at a single-day high of 109 total COVID-19 patients.

Perhaps the most worrisome statistic to begin the week came from statewide numbers, which showed 1,717 hospitalizations across Alabama — the highest number yet. The Alabama Department of Public Health also reported 57,239 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed during the month of November, up drastically from 37,584 new cases in October.

Patch reported on Monday that health professionals have cited a host of potential factors that may have led to the pre-holiday spike in infections, including "COVID fatigue," as many grow tired of following public health guidelines relating to social distancing and wearing masks.

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Experts have also pointed to other possible contributors, such as schools returning to in-person instruction, along with fall sporting events, social gatherings and work meetings.

The worst of this wave, some officials caution, could still be on the way though due to the Thanksgiving holiday, which saw nearly 1.2 million people pass through U.S. airports on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

Previous holidays throughout the pandemic, including Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day were each followed by sharp increases in new cases across the country, which provides a likely indicator of things to come following one the busiest holidays of the year for out-of-town travel and large indoor gatherings.

David O'Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the role of travel in the pandemic, told the Associated Press this week that the same result from other pandemic holidays is likely after Thanksgiving and leading up to Christmas.

"Travel is going to be contributing to a bigger surge," he said. "What we see in the next couple weeks will tell us a lot about what will happen after Christmas. We're in the midst of a catastrophe as it is. You don't need a surge for it to become horrible. The health care systems are already stretched."

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