More Virus Cases At Elmhurst Hospital, But Lower Death Rate

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst Hospital is seeing more coronavirus cases the last three weeks, but the death rate has gone down, according to hospital reports.

As of Thursday, the hospital had 24 coronavirus patients. The number has been hovering around 20 since March 23. In the first half of March, the caseload was in single digits, dropping as low as six.

All the recent numbers are far lower than the peaks of the pandemic. In November, Elmhurst Hospital reached a high of 84 coronavirus patients.

In the last three weeks of March, the hospital reported a total of four more coronavirus deaths, rising to 177 at month's end. The four additional deaths was a far lower number than during the worst periods of the pandemic. (On April 1, the hospital changed the way it counts coronavirus deaths, so the number is now 170.)

"The death rate is lower, in part, because of the age of the patients we're seeing is younger," hospital spokesman Keith Hartenberger said in an interview Thursday. "We're not seeing as many patients 65 or older or patients in their 40s and 50s."

Also, over the course of the pandemic, the medical community has gained greater expertise on how to treat coronavirus patients and when to use particular types of treatment, Hartenberger said.

Additionally, fewer older people are in the hospital for the coronavirus because a large percentage of them are vaccinated, Hartenberger said.

The trend with the death rate, he said, has been good for a while.

"The number of people getting vaccinated is going up," Hartenberger said, "but we're not out of the woods."