“Best Ever” Decatur Morgan Hospital for COVID-19 Patients | Morgan County

“They had a fundamental health condition that prevented them from being vaccinated, but employees said,” If I get infected with COVID without vaccination, I will die. ” Said on monday.

Employees who received two doses of COVID-19’s Pfizer Bio-N-Tech vaccine on December 22 have experienced anaphylactic reactions to other allergens in the past, Powers said.

According to a statement from the Alabama Public Health Service, employees were “needed to be observed after vaccination” when they had an anaphylactic reaction. It is the only severe allergic reaction in the state reported by ADPH.

Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, director of hospital medicine at UAB, said he understands why some people are nervous about vaccination, but they have been in development for years.

“One way to see it is that everything we do at this point is ,” Kennedy said. “When you come to the hospital, we throw everything we can to the patient and try to improve the patient with just a few months’ worth of data that helps guide us.

“Vaccines are probably our cure, as the technology and science behind the development of vaccines is in fact the result of years of research done to develop other vaccines. Better than some of them. “

According to Powers, the employee’s decision to risk an allergic reaction to get vaccinated indicates the severity of the virus.

“It’s how serious this is, and because this is a person who works in the hospital every day, they see what’s happening to these patients,” Powers said.

Employees are expected to recover completely, Powers said, adding that they were fortunate to have been vaccinated in hospitals rather than offsite.

“People who want it and have underlying health should make sure you come to the hospital and get it,” Powers said.

Powers said more than 400 hospital staff had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. She said that about a quarter of vaccinated people are doctors and the rest are employees and front-line staff.

The hospital vaccinated 1,800 times last week with the Moderna vaccine and will begin the first two vaccinations at the vaccine clinic on Wednesday. At a press conference on Monday, Powers said half of the doses went to hospital employees and the remaining doses were “assigned to first responders, other clinics and doctors.”

ADPH says it expects the general public to start vaccination sometime this spring.

According to Powers, the hospital is “the best ever” for COVID-19-positive inpatients. As of Monday morning, the hospital had 96 confirmed patients and 7 estimated COVID-19 inpatients.

According to Powers, the number of patients using ventilators has declined slightly due to death. About a week ago, 16 COVID-19 patients were on ventilator in the hospital, but as of Monday, 14 were on ventilator. According to Powers, there were 23 people in the intensive care unit, 14 of whom were COVID-19 positive.

“We died a lot during the Christmas holidays, which is a shame,” Powers said.

According to Powers, hospital staffing remains an issue, with approximately 10% of employees being quarantined because of a positive COVID-19 exposure or test.

“We’re trying to get over it because many nurses tested positive, so it was very difficult during the holidays,” Powers said.

As of Monday, the hospital had 173 employees for COVID-19. According to Powers, 81 are virus-positive and 92 are self-quarantined. She said the hospital has about 1,700 employees.

People who test positive for COVID-19, which is at high risk of developing complications, should call their doctor to ask for a referral to monoclonal antibody treatment, Powers said. She said antibody infusions have shown promise in preventing high-risk patients from requiring hospitalization.

“We received an additional 70 or so (dose) this morning,” Powers said. “We have had a lot of success in keeping people away from the hospital.”

Decatur Mayor Tabbowling said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt by city employees.

“Whenever my family dies, I often pray with my employees. I prayed with more employees during December than in the last four years, which is difficult,” Bowling said. It was. “We see that type of mortality. Not all are related to COVID, but there is still a lot of sadness in our area.”

According to ADPH data, the positive rate in Morgan County has been less than 55% in the last two weeks, which means that more than half of individuals tested for COVID-19 are positive on the test.

Judy Smith’s ADPH administrator in the northern region said December was a particularly difficult month in terms of COVID-19 infection and death, which could be exacerbated in early 2021 when the post-vacation surge begins. Said there is. At a news conference on Monday morning, she wrapped her car around a building waiting for a test and passed the test center.

“We are very worried about the next couple of weeks. The general process is Christmas, Christmas shopping, or whatever they did, probably everyone who gathered at the end of the week, And … there will be a big rise in the test next week, “Smith said.

Death was another factor contributing to the decline in hospital COVID-19 numbers, despite state-wide hospitalizations reaching a record high of about 2,600 on Sunday, Smith said.

“Even if the numbers go down, that’s not necessarily the right reason,” Smith said. “Everyone who left the hospital didn’t go home as we wanted. They didn’t go to their earthly home.”

In Morgan County, 10,252 COVID-19s have occurred since the pandemic began. As of Monday, a total of 87 Morgan County residents had died of COVID-19, and 1,681 new cases were diagnosed in the county in the last two weeks.

Powers said that even those who gathered at Christmas should rethink their plans for the New Year.

“If you spend Christmas with your loved one, don’t spend the New Year, you know these parties and things, make sure you stay home,” she said. “We expect something really bad to happen within two weeks of Christmas next week.”