Jul 12, 2021

St. Joseph sees a rapid increase in COVID-19 numbers

Posted Jul 12, 2021 10:59 PM

VIDEO PROVIDED BY MOSAIC LIFE CARE ST. JOSEPH

By WHITNEE ICE 

St. Joseph Post 

With COVID-19 on the rise, Mosaic Life Care St. Joseph has had to occupy the entire 5th floor of the hospital as well as nine rooms in the ICU for COVID-19 patients, while placing seven patients on ventilators.  

Mosaic Life Care had 52 patients with COVID-19 in its system as of Monday, with 51 in St. Joseph and one in Maryville.  

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Davin Turner says the Delta variant of COVID-19 is the most common variant so far in this area.  

“The Delta variant is more contagious, so it's more easily spread and when you have a population that has a low vaccination rate, it's going to spread more rapidly, especially because it just is more contagious,” Turner tells reporters during a news conference  

Turner asks the community to protect themselves. 

“We are seeing it in the younger adults, and again, some are becoming severely ill. Of those, those would be the ones that, either one, have underlying medical conditions, however not always, but one thing is common, they have not been vaccinated,” says Turner.  

Turner encourages the community to get the vaccine, saying the vaccine is meant to protect you from dying from the virus.   

“That really is the true measure of a vaccine. Do you survive the illness, if you still contract it? Because we give vaccines all the time and folks still may contract that illness, but normally it does not kill them so it gives you your best chance of survival,” says Turner.  

A third of the patient in the hospital due to COVID-19 are under the age of 50, with less than five being under 30 years old.  

Under 20% of Buchanan County residents have completed COVID-19 vaccinations. The county has recorded 11,440 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, resulting in a total of 186 deaths.