Georgia hospitals are seeing fewer COVID-19 patients after a slight surge over the holidays.
Four years into the pandemic, we are in a much better place.
“We talk all the time about not wanting to relive those earlier days,” said Dylan Glass, a registered nurse at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. “During the height of the pandemic, every patient was severely ill with COVID. We are not seeing that as frequently, so it makes it a bit easier to cope with and manage.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Two years ago in early 2022, when The Atlanta Journal-Constitution visited Northeast Georgia Medical Center, 18 of the 24 beds in the intensive care unit (ICU) were filled with COVID patients. Under a maze of machines, tubes, and wires, patients wrestled with everything from dangerously low oxygen levels to heart problems to organ failure. Some were on the brink of death.
Today, far fewer people are dying or becoming seriously ill because vaccines and prior infections have bolstered their immunity and reduced the severity of illnesses. At a visit to the hospital on Feb 5, only three of the ICU beds were filled with COVID. And many of the hospitalized COVID patients only tested positive after being admitted for other reasons such as cancer surgery or appendicitis.
The latest preliminary data on weekly COVID deaths in Georgia show 14 COVID deaths for the week ending Feb. 3. Data from January, which is considered more reliable, shows around 50 COVID deaths a week in Georgia.
The number of new COVID hospitalizations in Georgia for the week ending Feb. 3 totaled 740, down from 834 the week before, marking an 11% drop.
Back in September 2021, shortly after vaccines became available and a more contagious variant, delta, was circulating, there were a staggering 995 deaths during the week ending Sept. 4, 2021. And the peak of new COVID hospitalizations for Georgia was 5,600 for the week ending Jan. 9, 2021.
There are more treatment options today. And while the current omicron variants are considerably more contagious than prior variants, Northeast Georgia Medical Center doctors said they do not attack the lungs as aggressively as those earlier strains. But COVID remains a threat, especially for those who are older and who have weakened immune systems.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
The AJC recently returned to the ICU and interviewed Glass and infectious disease physician Dr. Supriya Mannepalli about how the coronavirus has changed and how sick patients are managed now. The following is a Q and A with Mannepalli. Some of her comments were edited for length and clarity.
Q: What’s it like to be hospitalized with COVID now?
Mannepalli: I think from the earlier days to now, what we have seen is a change in the severity overall and less severity overall. But there are still patients who have other risk factors —chronic medical conditions, immunosuppressive conditions ― who who not up to date with their vaccines, who do get sick enough to need to be hospitalized. But that number is much less compared to earlier surges we have seen in 2020, 2021.
Q: How many COVID patients are currently hospitalized at the Northeast Georgia Medical System?
Mannepalli: COVID patients in the entire health system are between 40 and 50 and this includes all of the hospitals and long-term care as well (the system includes five hospitals). This doesn’t mean that they’re specifically here for COVID. Most of them are here for something else and test positive for COVID. But there are the ones who are here truly for COVID-related respiratory infections. Those are the patients with low immunity and other medical conditions, and not up to date with their vaccinations.
There are also those patients who are here for another issue and if they have comorbidities, the COVID diagnosis on top of what they are already dealing with can make a patient very ill and in need of ICU level of care.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Q: What appears to make the biggest difference?
Mannepalli: I think the one thing I keep stressing is the importance of staying up to date with the COVID vaccines, and last I checked the uptake of the new vaccine is very, very low. Overall, maybe 20% across the U.S. So that’s very low numbers, and especially those who are elderly, at high risk of developing severe COVID, it’s so important to stay up to date on your vaccinations.
(In Georgia, the vaccination rate is even lower. Only about 7% of Georgians have had the updated COVID-19 vaccine, according to the most recent figures from the state Department of Public Health.)
When it comes to oral treatments (such as the anti-viral Paxlovid, which can be taken at home) for those who are high risk in the outpatient setting, start it early so it doesn’t progress to severe infection later on.
If they are here and admitted, our treatments are still primarily the antiviral remdesivir and steroids; if they require oxygen, that as well.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Q: Is COVID now one of the multiple viruses you are dealing with along with the flu? What has that been like?
Mannepalli: One thing we are noticing is a severe flu season this year. We’ve seen some patients with severe influenza infection and some with a secondary bacterial infection. We’ve seen some very, very sick flu patients this season — even some who needed to be intubated (to assist their breathing mechanically).
Most of those who are hospitalized for the flu were not vaccinated against influenza.
Vaccines can help. Even when they are not the perfect match (to circulating strains), they help prevent the disease.
