By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Mosaic Life Care reports a spike in COVID hospitalizations in St. Joseph with the latest numbers indicating a leveling off.
Mosaic Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Davin Turner, says 68 COVID patients were being treated at the St. Joseph hospital Wednesday, up from 59 previously.
“We have seven patients in our ICU. Four of those patients are on ventilators,” Turner tells reporters. “We have two positive patients in our hospital in Maryville.”
Mosaic Thursday morning reported a drop in hospitalizations, with 55 patients in St. Joseph and two in Maryville.
The 5th floor of the St. Joseph hospital, which has 48 beds and is the hospital pandemic ward, is full. Ten patients were being treated on the 2nd floor Wednesday as the 4th floor, with another 48 beds, is being prepared for coronavirus patients.
“This is dynamic. As the numbers will start to plateau and go down, we’ll eventually just end back up on 5, completely,” according to Turner. “You need to continue to watch the city numbers. As you see the city numbers, positivity on a daily rate, go up it should not be a surprise that we have an increased number of hospitalized patients.”
St. Joseph health officials reported 82 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 75 on Monday. The numbers Wednesday fell off of those highs with 45 new cases reported in Buchanan County, bringing the total county number since the pandemic began to 2,978.
St. Joseph health officials also reported the county’s 36th coronavirus-related death, a man in his 70s with an underlying health condition.
Turner says Mosaic in St. Joseph has the space, equipment, and staff to handle the current number of COVID-19 patients, though he says the increase is stretching the Mosaic nursing staff.
“Staffing’s tight. When we’re at this level and you have this many COVID patients in your house, it’s tight. I’m not going to tell you it’s not,” Turner says. “We have staffing, but our staff, our nurses, our techs, I’m telling you, our cleaning people, they are working around the clock to take care of these folks, but it’s tight. I’m not going to tell you it’s not.”
Mosaic has now tested 35,861 area residents with 2,831 testing positive for COVID-19.