Oklahoma doctors keep watch on gamma variant, while COVID’s grip on younger patients strengthens
TULSA, Okla. — Six of Oklahoma’s top health care professionals hosted another virtual meeting today for members of the press.
The Healthier Oklahoma Coalition is a group representing health care organizations from around the state. It continues its virtual media update series with a discussion on COVID-19 infection trends throughout the state, the status of hospital bed space, and the vaccination journey of a rural nurse.
Coronavirus infections are still soaring in Oklahoma, and doctors are now worried about younger adults. Specifically, the 18 to 49 age group. It has the highest number of cases ever.
Hospitals are admitting more patients per day than this time last year. They are also coping with a desperate need for more staffing.
“We’re having big issues with trying to find places for patients right now. We need nurses, we need staff, we need respiratory therapists, and we need to keep them healthy,” Dr. Sam Ratermann said, who works at INTEGRIS Grove Hospital.
The Oklahoma Hospital Association reports, capacity issues in some areas of the state are serious. The combination of COVID and non-COVID patients gets overwhelming, and today’s ICU admissions are much younger.
“50-64 has exceeded the 65 and up [age group] in admissions for the first time ever,” said Dr. David Kendrick, department chair of medical informatics at OU School of Community Medicine. “46-39 is also higher than ever. The 18 to 35 age group is also higher.”
Oklahoma hospitals were notified on Thursday that they are allowed to increase bedspace, redesignate hospital beds and cohort patients. This is because of the national emergency declaration.
Despite the flexibility an emergency declaration provides, it is not a saving grace.
“It is very stressful right now in all our hospitals. So, we respectfully ask all citizens to receive a vaccination,” Lawanna Halstead said, R.N. and vice president of quality and clinical initiatives for the Oklahoma Hospital Association.
The HOC panel stressed that vaccines not only slow infections, but even help reduce the variant rate.
“Those variants are going to continue to come at us until we get the ability for people to be infected minimized,” Dr. Kendrick warned.
The HOC also confirmed today Oklahoma does have infections of the gamma COVID strain.
They say, stopping the coronavirus from mutating involves reducing infections, which means increasing vaccinations.
More Oklahomans are changing their minds about the coronavirus vaccine, including R.N. Grace Zieba in Grove.
“I am not immune, as a 40-year-old woman with no comorbidities. I am not immune to COVID, and I am not ready for it to give me the fight of my life.”
She was skeptical from the beginning. Zieba said, the lack of full FDA approval and not enough data on effects frightened her into vaccine-hesitancy. However, the new coronavirus swing and its toll on younger people scares her more.
Last week’s Healthier Oklahoma Coalition update ended with the panel expressing a need for the governor to issue a state-wide emergency order. They also warned that hospitals would soon fill to capacity if coronavirus spread continued without a pickup in vaccinations.
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