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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
Increase in Covid transmission continued this week in Berrien County
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COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS GROWING WEEK BY WEEK
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BY FRANCESCA SAGALA
errien County remained in the high transmission category this week, with Berrien County Health Department Interim Health Officer Courtney Davis reporting new cases of Covid-19 cases continuing to rise. From Sept. 2 through 8, the health department reported 157.7 new cases per 100,000 residents and the percent of positive tests over that period at 12.3 percent. In August, the county had a reported 829 confirmed and probable cases, which Davis said has been more than a four-fold increase from what was reported in July, when it was 156. This was a 73 percent increase from what was reported a year ago at that time. “I think what we can see from those numbers is certainly the impact of higher transmissible variants like Delta activity in our community we’re seeing those increases in that transmission and really trying to align recommendations to curb that growth as we move here into the fall,” she said during a joint Facebook Live with Spectrum Health Lakeland Wednesday, Sept. 8. The health department looks at certain metrics when making decisions and recommendations, such as watching hospitalizations as well as vaccination rates (the vaccination rate is slowly increasing throughout the county, but she’d like to it see grow more rapidly). With regards to the county public
health order for masking that’s been issued for individuals in prekindergarten through 12 grade indoor educational settings, Davis said that with the current higher transmission, it’s important to be “layering on a number of prevention and mitigation strategies.” Davis said this includes “adding on different layers of defense that can protect teachers and staff, cut that chain of transmission, make sure things are not impacting home life from that and one of those key things that we know is safe and effective and works for cutting the chain of transmission is masking.” “Really, our layering of these prevention strategies is about prioritizing in person learning - we know the impact of having kids home and remote and we don’t want to see that, we want social interaction, we want kids in school, we don’t want them impacted with quarantining,” she said. In the first four days of school the previous week, the county had 26 Covid cases for staff and students which resulted in over 83 quarantines. Davis said that some of the decisions over the past month made by the health department haven’t “always made everyone happy.” “We just want to continue to put out there that our common enemy is Covid and together, we will get through this, we will be stronger on the other side.” Dr. Loren Hamel, president of
Spectrum Health Lakeland, said they were seeing more Covid cases in hospital, which is “growing slowly, week by week.” “About a month ago we had a handful, just a few, in the hospital now, we have a couple dozen,” he said Sept. 8. On Tuesday, Sept. 14, the county was reporting 20 Covid non-ICU patients and six ICU patients. Hamel said a few patients who are in the hospital have had the vaccination, most of whom are older; however, he said they were seeing “more folks in the hospital proportionally that are unvaccinated.”
H
e said he recently saw out the window a 30-yearold being airlifted out of Lakeland to get a treatment called ECMO. “ECMO is where you pump the blood out of a person’s body, oxygenate it and then pump it back in- that’s when the heart and lungs can no longer deliver oxygen to the tissue, it’s a last-ditch effort to buy a little time to save a life,” he said. Hamel added that they’re continuing to do it on much younger individuals in the hospital this time around, more so than in the first and second surges of Covid. He advised everyone to continue to use to social distance, mask up and “be safe.” “Even if you have the vaccine, still be careful – this epidemic is not over yet.”
Be whatever you want to be. — Doja Cat
