COVID-related hospitalizations are increasing faster than ever in Oregon. No one is sounding the alarm

The number of Oregonians hospitalized with COVID-19 has skyrocketed over the past month, increasing faster than in previous waves and almost entirely among the unvaccinated.

Hospital officials say COVID-positive patients requiring hospitalization are on average younger than ever. With symptoms appearing faster, patients are sicker when admitted to hospital and their health declines rapidly compared to previous flare-ups.

On Friday, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 reached 496, including a record 135 in intensive care. At the current trajectory, Oregon is set to surpass its all-time high of 584 COVID-positive patients as early as next week.

But hospital leaders and Governor Kate Brown have not sounded the alarm, as they have in previous waves. Brown warned in June 2020 – when 108 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 – that hospitals “could be overwhelmed” within weeks based on the modeling. Brown renewed the restrictions in November – when 285 people were hospitalized – saying hospitals could resist an increase but “it must be a last resort.” And in April – with 328 people hospitalized – Brown again restored some constraints as the increase in hospitalizations “threatened to overwhelm doctors and nurses.”

The reasons such warnings and capacity issues have not returned this summer appear three-fold: With vaccines readily available and known to dramatically reduce the need for hospitalization, healthcare providers have focused on the need to do so. vaccinate more people; the current increase in hospitals has largely spared the Portland area – where hospitals have developed ways to better manage hospital capacity – giving the state an additional buffer for more sick patients; the governor has handed the COVID-19 guarantees to individual counties, where local leaders are reluctant to institute them for communities that feel exhausted after being given the green light just weeks ago.

“Three or four weeks later there’s a concern here, but it’s also the point, that if someone comes out today and gets the shot, they won’t be sick,” said Erik Robinson, carries – speech from Oregon Health & University of Sciences. “We need people who are vaccinated.

The governor of Oregon has largely taken a hands-off approach to the current wave, relying on county officials to implement restrictions to slow the spread since she lifted restrictions across the country. the state on June 30. So far, no county has taken action., although some hospital systems have voluntarily postponed elective procedures to manage capacity.

Brown is “incredibly concerned about the increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19,” spokesman Charles Boyle said in an email earlier this week.

“Local leaders have called for local control and therefore we expect local leaders in areas worst affected by COVID-19 to take action,” Boyle added. “All options remain on the table if hospitalizations continue to increase.”

The summer peak has left healthcare providers scratching their heads over vaccine hesitancy or resistance, but they have few options other than to continue pushing injections as the most effective way to prevent hospitalization or death from COVID-19. Some 70% of eligible Oregonians are at least partially vaccinated, leaving more than a million people without vaccines.

“We are doing everything we can to promote vaccination in the community,” said Dr Katie Sharff, infectious disease physician at Kaiser Permanente. “But if you haven’t put in place any mitigation measures, you’ll continue to see community transmission, we’ll continue to see people get sick, we’ll continue to see people hospitalized. And that just adds to this capacity problem.

Meanwhile, the unvaccinated group of people in the state tend to be younger, and the delta variant is more contagious and has more severe effects, said Gary Walker, spokesperson for Providence Health & Services.

“The difference is they’re younger, sicker, faster,” Walker said of those currently in hospital.

Before the July 4 vacation, Providence Portland Medical Center had no intensive care patients with COVID-19 for a few days, said Sabra Bederka, an intensive care nurse at the hospital. Encouraged by the decline in the number of patients, Bederka and other medical staff she spoke to believed the state’s plans to officially reopen were “a terrible idea,” she said., although Oregon was among the last states to do so nationally. “And clearly, we were right, unfortunately.”

“‘It’s OK not to take precautions’, that’s basically what we heard from the government,” she said. “Mask if you want, mask if you haven’t been vaccinated. People aren’t going to pay attention to that. They have to be fundamentally forced to do the right thing, and it is heartbreaking. And they get angry when told to do the right thing because it is their right not to do the right thing.

When Bederka was last at work a few days ago, she said, none of the COVID-positive patients in the intensive care were vaccinated. “It’s a wave of the unvaccinated,” she said.

“There is no 100% guarantee of anything, but wear a mask, get vaccinated, you have a very, very, very, very high chance of not getting sick at all”, a- she declared. “Or if you, God forbid, get sick, it’s very, very sweet.”

On Friday, the summer outbreak had officially pushed hospitalizations of COVID-positive patients in the metropolitan area beyond the spring peak, but they remain at a little more than half of what they were at the height of the fall.

Portland and its surrounding counties also have a significantly lower share of positive hospitalizations for COVID than in the fall – previously claiming about half of the statewide total, but now just over a third .

During this time, the summer peak was particularly acute in southern Oregon. The hospital region that covers Jackson and Josephine counties had a record 100 patients with COVID-19 on Friday.

The Asante healthcare system registered around 80% of these patients at its three hospitals in Medford, Ashland and Grants Pass. “We have been operating at full capacity for many weeks,” said spokesperson Lauren Van Sickle.

She added that 90% of Asante’s COVID-positive patients are not vaccinated.

Portland-area hospitals often see the most critically ill COVID-positive patients in all of Oregon. On Friday, the region recorded 47 people in intensive care, already above the spring peak, and 18 people below the fall high.

As the state’s only academic medical center, OHSU treats the most serious and complex cases, said Dr David Zonies, OHSU’s deputy chief medical officer for intensive care. Providence has also taken COVID-positive patients from southern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Montana who were flown by helicopter to Portland, Bederka said.

On Friday, Oregon reported that Portland-area hospitals were operating at 95% of capacity, with 89 non-ICU beds available. The intensive care capacity was 87%, with 44 beds available.

The summer surge has increased anxiety among healthcare workers battered by 17 months of the pandemic. Hospitals across the country continue to face staff shortages, with many leaving the profession during the pandemic.

“I don’t think anyone was really expecting a summer raise,” Zonies said. “We were all really focused on what happens when we go back inside in the fall.”

Zonies said the most frustrating part of the wave of hospitalizations was that it was preventable if more people had been vaccinated. He said the hospital is now receiving critically ill patients between the ages of 20 and 40 who are unvaccinated, although state data shows about three dozen Oregonians in those age groups have died. during the entire pandemic on nearly 2,900 deaths in total.

“The narrative that it doesn’t affect young people just doesn’t stick anymore, and that’s what makes it so scary,” he said.

“It’s not a fear tactic. It’s just a harsh, cold reality, ”he added. “People just need to really understand that this is where it is. We need to encourage, we need to be firm, and we need people to engage in their community and ensure our safety. “

– Ardeshir Tabrizian;[email protected]; 503-221-8067; @ardytabrizian