COVID-19 caseload activity has been trending downward for close to a month, and that decline finally made it to Newman Regional Health’s patient beds.
The hospital’s bed space has been limited from late December through much of January, but that has finally declined in the latest COVID-19 Dashboard. After peaking at 16 on Jan. 27, the daily patient census dipped to four as of Wednesday.
This follows Lyon County Public Health’s most recent report of 78 cases between Monday and Wednesday, as well as an ongoing trend of lower numbers after peaking at 187 daily cases Jan. 18 and 185 cases Jan. 19.
Transfers now run a median of just under two hours, although transfers can take over a day to process.
Meanwhile, the number and percentage of fully-vaccinated residents needing hospital stays continues to climb. Of the 148 hospitalized patients since July 1, 39 are fully vaccinated. That number translates to 26.4 percent of hospitalized COVID patients, the highest percentage since Newman Regional Health began keeping track last fall. Fully-vaccinated patients are staying an average of 6.4 days, up from under 5 days last week. Unvaccinated patients are staying almost 10 days on average.
