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BELLEFONTE -- During Tuesday's Centre County commissioners' meeting, Tom Charles, Executive Vice President System Development and Chief Strategy Officer of Mount Nittany Health, spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Charles painted a bleak picture of what is happening in the community as the county heads into the holiday season.
"This is a serious virus. It's had a huge impact on families across Centre County, State College and surrounding communities," Charles said.
He then broke down the numbers, taking a closer look at cases and hospitalizations.
Cases
On Monday, Centre County reported 54 new COVID-19 cases to increase its total to 23,973, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Among total cases 21,614 are confirmed and 2,359 are probable.
According to Charles, the climbing numbers are "not a major surprise."
"We were down to very low numbers in the summertime. As the fall has come and the winter has come, the number of cases in the community has escalated significantly to levels that we were experiencing last winter. That's the underlying issue here -- the number of COVID cases has really multiplied. Transmission in the community has continued to grow," Charles said.
Pennsylvania continues to add thousands of cases of COVID-19 every day. On Monday alone, the Commonwealth added 5,395 COVID-19 positives to bring the state's total to 1,843,137.
Hospitalizations
Charles said that the Mount Nittany Medical Center's beds continue to fill with patients who have COVID-19. Charles said that MNMC has 76 COVID-19 inpatients, with 10 in intensive care and 10 on ventilators.
"Last April, we had very few patients in the hospital. It started to climb last fall and it peaked at the end of December of last year. That number came back down somewhat in the early spring, it spiked up again in the late spring and then way back down, to the point where we had less than five COVID patients in the summer," Charles said.
However, the fall of 2021 saw hospitalizations climb dramatically.
"Since the middle of September, we've had at least 30 COVID-positive patients in the hospital. In the longer-term view of the pandemic, that's a high sustained number. We've never had a stretch of time where we've had that many COVID patients in the hospital. Alarmingly, you can see what has happened to that '30' number in the last couple of weeks, it has more than doubled," Charles said.
According to Charles, on Monday night, MNMC had the "highest number of COVID patients in our hospital at midnight that we've had at any point in the 21-month pandemic."
"That's the highest number we've had," Charles said matter-of-factly.
Needless to say, MNMC is stretched thin.
"We've been in a very challenging stretch because the level of COVID transmission in the community has continued to be high," Charles said.
Charles compared December 2020 to December 2021.
"Last December, when we thought things were pretty bad, we had an average of 49 COVID patients in our beds … so far in December (2021), we're at 61. You can see how much more challenging things are in our environment than they were a year ago," Charles said.
He said that filling hospital beds is not limited to the MNMC.
"This is not just a Mount Nittany phenomenon. If you look to the East, Geisinger is struggling. Evangelical in Lewisburg is having its challenges. Altoona is having its challenges. You can take this beyond central Pennsylvania and read these stories all across the country. We have been fortunate in that we have not experienced some of this depth of challenge, but it's with us right now and that's the reality of it," Charles said.
As a result of the hospitalizations, MNMC has been forced to limit some of its services.
"We've been postponing surgeries. We don't like to do that, but we've had to do that," Charles said. "Our wait times in the emergency (room) have been much longer. It's not the normal service we've been used to providing."
Vaccinations
Charles said that those in the Centre Region can help their community -- and MNMC -- by getting vaccinated and masking.
"I'm going to say what we've been saying forever. Get vaccinated. If you're vaccinated, get boosted. Whether you are or are not vaccinated, please consider masking. It's an additional layer of protection. This is an airborne virus," Charles said.
As of Monday morning, 89,708 people in Centre County were fully vaccinated and 10,918 were partially covered. Booster doses have been administered to 28,379 county residents.
Among the county's entire population, 70.4 percent have received at least one dose and 54.6 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among adult residents, 76.7 percent have received at least one dose and 59.3 percent are fully vaccinated.
He also asked that people maintain social distancing.
"We will say this now, we've said it all along and we'll say it the next time I'm here -- these are the things that collectively lower the level of transmission in the community," Charles said.
Vaccines are readily available. In Centre County, vaccination appointments through Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Mount Nittany Health and through other pharmacies and providers listed at vaccines.gov.
Commissioners' Reaction
The commissioners thanked Charles for coming in to discuss the virus.
Chair Michael Pipe made what he called a "plea to the community."
"For those who have not gotten vaccinated, please re-consider that," Pipe said. "In terms of vaccinations, it's the best way we can lower numbers at our hospital. I would just ask our community to re-consider."
Commissioner Mark Higgins thanked Charles and the staff at MNMC for its dedication during the pandemic.
"(We) very much appreciate what you and your staff are doing," Higgins said.
The commissioners will meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at the Willowbank Building. The meeting is open to the public and masks are required. The meeting will also be televised live via C-NET.