DCH Ties High For New Virus Inpatients Amid Holiday Uncertainty

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — DCH Health System tied its previous high for new coronavirus hospitalizations in a single day on Sunday, at a time when public health officials are warning of another potential surge in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday.

A close look at historical data made public by the hospital system since the start of the pandemic shows that Sunday's new hospitalizations in Northport and Tuscaloosa tie a single-day high for DCH going back to Nov. 9 and is only the third time the system has seen 20 or more new coronavirus patients admitted in a single day.

QUICK FACTS

• New COVID-19 inpatients: 21
• Total COVID-19 inpatients: 79
• COVID-19 patients in intensive care units: 22
• Patients on ventilators: 8
• New cases for Tuscaloosa County: 90
• Tuscaloosa County's 7-day average for new cases: 70.14
• Tuscaloosa County COVID-19 cases over last 14 days: 1,416
• Tuscaloosa County cumulative COVID-19 cases: 9,333
• Tuscaloosa County confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 121

Local hospitalization numbers provided by DCH as of 11 a.m. Sunday, while Sunday's countywide and statewide totals can be attributed to Bamatracker.com.

While November has seen two days with 21 new admissions each, the last time the system reported such an influx was on July 21 when 20 new inpatients were admitted. This came in the early stages of a rise in hospitalizations that would see DCH top triple-digits for COVID-19 inpatients, topping out at 109 on July 30.

Patch has reached out to DCH for comment and will post any additional information or updates as they comes available.

Over the last week, though, the hospital system has managed to hover in the 70s for total inpatients during the most recent spike and has previously cited faster discharge times helping to alleviate strain, as treatments and techniques improve with each new day. However, the system saw only two days this week with less than 10 new inpatients admitted. City of Tuscaloosa officials have previously pointed to 60 inpatients as being an initial threshold for concern as it relates to capacity. However, despite previous spikes, DCH has yet to become overwhelmed.

Fear of an unprecedented surge in hospitalizations, though, was a consistent talking point across Alabama and the rest of the nation going into the Thanksgiving holiday, as social and family gatherings are expected to contribute to increased spreading of the virus.

Earlier this week, Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mary McIntyre cautioned the public about rising rates of COVID-19 ahead of the holiday, in the hopes of promoting safe practices to mitigate an expected increase in hospitalizations.

"The spread of the virus has resulted in the greatest increases in hospitalizations since July, and for the past six weeks there have been at least 1,000 new cases per day," the officials said in a joint statement. "In July, Alabama hospitals were at maximum capacity."

The Alabama Department of Public Health also pointed out that roughly 1.5% of coronavirus cases in Alabama have resulted in death, making it approximately 15 times deadlier than influenza.

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Dr. Mark Rupp, professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told the Associated Press this week that the effect of Thanksgiving is likely to be a "magnified version of the weekend figures for the entire country."

Rupp also said the holiday could potentially exacerbate the record-keeping discrepancies over the long weekend, artificially depressing the reported numbers for four or five days before spiking as test results catch up.

"I suspect that, again, after the Thanksgiving holiday is over, we'll see kind of a surge of people catching up with their testing next week," Rupp said. "And then I fully expect that, because people have continued to travel, they've continued to have gatherings outside their immediate family, that we will see a surge in cases here over the next one to three weeks."

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