Local hospitals and health departments see a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations

CAPE FEAR REGION, NC (WWAY) —Local hospitals and county health departments are feeling the impact of rising COVID cases.

One area hospital is rearranging its treatment spaces and protocols due to the increasing number of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Daily COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising high across counties in the Cape Fear Region and local healthcare officials are advising residents to take steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the North Carolina Health and Human Services COVID-19 dashboard, New Hanover County had the highest average of daily hospitalizations in the Cape Fear with 85 between August 10 and August 23. Pender County had the lowest average, with less than 5.

Columbus Regional Healthcare System is an area hospital that’s capacity has been impacted by the increase in hospitalizations, having to add beds in its lobby to create additional treatment areas, also enforcing visitation restrictions.

“We made eight new patient care areas in our lobby, to help with the volume of patients that are coming in. We currently have 44 COVID in-patients, we have also expanded our critical care bed capacity, and out of the 14 critical care patients we have today, 13 are receiving mechanical ventilation,” said Stephanie Miller, Columbus Regional Healthcare System Physician and Community Services Coordinator.

Carolyn Moser, Health Director with Pender County Health Department, said the county is seeing a rapid increase in positive COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths from the virus.

“We have had 4 deaths in the last two weeks, and we’ve also had about 600 new cases in the last 2 weeks. It’s higher than when were at the peak of COVID in January, our hospitalizations have definitely increased as well,” said Carolyn Moser, Health Director with Pender County Health Department.

Novant Health, which serves Brunswick and New Hanover Counties, has also continued to see high numbers of hospitalized patients across its health system. Dr. David Priest, Novant Health’s chief safety, quality and epidemiology officer says they are seeing younger patients being put on ventilators.

“We are seeing the same steady high number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across our system. Numbers are pretty stable. Of the 550-600 COVID-19 patients we’re caring for at any given time right now, about 21% of them are requiring the intensive care unit. 15-18% of those patients are on ventilators right now, and the patients that are requiring those types of interventions are getting younger, and they have fewer comorbidities than they did earlier in the pandemic,” said Dr. Priest.

Many health officials are concerned about another surge in cases that could come from people traveling this upcoming Labor Day weekend.

“I am concerned about people traveling it does seem like a lot of our cases came from individuals who tried to take one more family vacation, before school started. Late September, I guess we’ll see those number increase even more. It won’t be a surprise,” said Moser.

Health officials are also advising people to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, concerned about breakthrough COVID-19 cases.