Geisinger: COVID-19 hospitalizations improving but remain high

Daily hospitalizations for COVID-19 are down, but still remain incredibly high, according to Geisinger.

The medical system said in a release on Friday that, despite rising numbers of vaccinations and declining hospitalizations, the position is still a difficult one. Dr. Jaewon Ryu, Geisinger’s president and CEO, encouraged caution.

“We are still in a tenuous place, so even a small increase in hospitalizations can put us into a troublesome capacity situation that jeopardizes care for COVID and non-COVID patients,” Ryu said. “Despite the vaccination roll-out underway, we can’t lose sight of the fact we’re still facing challenges in our hospitals. In the past week, we are still admitting more than one new patient with COVID-19 to our hospitals every hour.”

Geisinger says that hospitals in our area remain at levels that were seen in late November. For the past two weeks, the Geisinger system has averaged 200 positive COVID-19 tests per day, with an average rate of positivity at about 14%.

This is lower than what Geisinger was seeing in December, with an average of 400 new positive tests per day and a positivity rate of 23%.

Geisinger says it reached the “milestone” of having fewer than 200 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, going as low as 185 earlier in the week. In late December, Geisinger said it saw a peak of 350 hospitalized patients.

Currently, Geisinger said it is not accepting any new appointments for first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, citing “uncertainty surrounding available vaccine supply.” However, all existing appointments will continue as scheduled.