Wednesday, June 17, 2020
COLOMBIA, SC (WIS) – As the number of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina continues to increase, Department of Health and Environmental Control officials warn that the increase could lead to more hospitalizations in the coming days and weeks.
At Prisma Health Richland Hospital, Dr. Helmut Albrecht says the hospital is seeing a manageable increase in patients because he says that most new cases are for people under 40, who rarely need to be hospitalized.
At the moment, Albrecht says that the capacity of intensive care units is sufficient. However, if South Carolina continues to see increases of up to 15% a day, he says it could lead to major problems.
“There is clearly not enough immunity. This may still return to an exponential increase. One patient, if you don’t write a check, turns 406 patients in 30 days, ”he explained.
The hospital has resumed some elective surgeries that could no longer be postponed, but Albrecht says the operations are far from normal.
Tuesday’s hospital bed occupancy in Richland County was almost 70%.
“It is a little higher than it was and it would be, with or without the additional increase, because we feel that certain things cannot be delayed any longer, but it is not a critical value here and it fluctuates significantly each day. I think we are keeping an eye on the capacity of the intensive care unit, but the hospital’s general capacity still has a long way to go before it has problems, ”explained Albrecht.
Two state counties, York and Orangeburg, are experiencing over 80% hospital bed occupancy.
If the number of hospitalizations increases, which they anticipate, there may be a lack of remdesivir, a drug used to treat patients with COVID-19.
“There will be no new stock for a long time, so I hope that if the numbers increase, which will eventually translate into more hospitalizations, we will be short of medication,” said Albrecht.
Prisma Health also explained that as the number of cases in South Carolina increases, they are not seeing as many convalescent plasma donors to meet demand.
“Plasma allows patients to scratch themselves without the need for a ventilator, so generally the course of the disease is much shorter, so they are discharged faster,” noted Albrecht.
The hospital wants to emphasize the importance of wearing a mask in public spaces. Albrecht says that wearing a mask does not protect you from catching the virus, but it does help to prevent it from spreading.
He says that if everyone wears a mask, the likelihood of overloading the healthcare system is drastically less.
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