As Sitka’s COVID case rate continues to trend downward, the number of COVID inpatients at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital has dropped a bit too — but those who do wind up in the hospital tend to be sicker, and younger, than patients earlier in the pandemic. With school just around the corner, local emergency officials are urging Sitkans to hold the course, and keep up their efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
When the local EOC met on August 11, Acting Incident Commander Rob Janik thanked Sitkans for working to reduce the spread by masking and keeping social bubbles small.
“It seems that our case rate truly is trending down,” he said. “We’re at a case rate of around 10 which was just fantastic. I want to commend the citizens, the businesses, the visitors to Sitka, taking those mitigation efforts that really truly make a difference. That’s when we beat this thing.”
SEARHC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elliot Bruhl while the hospital remains busy, the number of COVID inpatients had fallen from a high of around 12 to just one or two in the last few days. But he said they’re still seeing some severely ill patients.
“It’s also concerning that we continue to see some patients who are extremely sick. And I think the other thing that concerns me is that a lot of those patients who are severely ill have been, you know, younger people, people in their 30s and 40s and 50s, which is quite a bit younger than the types of folks that were getting sick last year,” said Bruhl.
Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing said more children have been getting sick too. 90 children from zero to 19 tested positive for the virus in July, and 17 have tested positive in August so far (as of 8-11-21). All but three of them were symptomatic. With school coming around the corner, she said that was a concern.
“So most of those children have varying degrees of symptoms. Some of it is just really minor. And some of it, some of those have had some of our children go to the hospital and be treated for COVID in the emergency room,” she said. “So children are susceptible, we are seeing an increase in children. So we just want to make sure that, though our goal is to keep kids in school, it’s to keep kids in school safely.”
Ewing said they’ve also seen an increase in hypoxia and silent hypoxia in patients, a drop in the bloodstream’s oxygen levels. Ewing said that anyone experiencing symptoms of hypoxia, like confusion and cough, fast heart rate, rapid breathing and wheezing, should call 911 to seek medical care immediately.
While cases are trending down in Sitka, the unified command stressed continued vigilance. Bruhl noted the recent outbreak in Haines– the community saw a steep uptick in cases last week, following the Southeast Alaska State Fair.
“This is, I think, a moment for us to pause as a community and just think about the fact that creating large venues, where people will be gathering is not advisable at this time,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, it’s it’s disappointing. But it really, this is where we’re at right now.”
Bruhl continued to stress the effectiveness of the vaccine in protecting against severe illness and death. He said 97-98 percent of hospitalizations are unvaccinated patients. And more Sitkans are heeding that advice. According to the city’s COVID dashboard, 78 percent of Sitkans have now received at least one COVID vaccine shot, an increase of around 4 percentage points from the beginning of July. Bruhl estimated that clinics at SEARHC and White’s Pharmacy administering around 100 vaccine doses every week.
