MADISON, Wis.– There are nearly as many people in the hospital for COVID-19 in Wisconsin as there were in Dane County at the pandemic’s peak last Fall.
It’s the fewest cases Wisconsin’s hospitals have seen since the pandemic started.
Looking back to November, the peak of COVID-19 in Wisconsin, more than 2,200 people were in the hospital sick with the virus.
“There were droves of patients coming in. They were very sick. They needed medical attention. Everyone was feeling, you know, overwhelmed,” UW Health’s Dr. Nasia Safdar said.
Today, that number is down to 186.
Locally, UW Health couldn’t tell us exactly how many COVID-19 patients it currently has, but the general trend is good. SSM Health has fewer than five patients. UnityPoint Meriter has eight.
“It helps reduce some of the anxiety, some of the concern,” President of St. Mary’s Kyle Nondorf said. “It’s just an overall really good feeling.”
Lower case numbers bring relief in more ways than one, for example, hospitals don’t have to worry about running out of masks, gloves and gowns.
“I think there’s a feeling of security know that there’s enough resources and that those can be ramped up or ramped down as the need arises,” Safdar said.
Some pandemic accommodations will stick around for the foreseeable future, like wearing masks and keeping COVID-19 patients together.
“It’s still very fluid. We’ll continue to monitor the hospitalizations we see in our community,” Nondorf said.
Safdar said we’re finally seeing this downward trend because of all pandemic protections, especially vaccines.
“I would say that vaccinations have really been the key strategy out of this pandemic,” Safdar said.
While this news is encouraging, both hospital systems said they’re not in the clear yet.
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
