TACOMA — Washington state’s decline in COVID-19 cases amid the deadly fifth wave has plateaued.
That’s according to hospital officials on Monday who offered updates on hospitalizations in a briefing hosted by the Washington State Hospital Association.
“And we don’t like where we are plateauing,” said WSHA Executive vice president Taya Briley.
“Right now COVID-19 hospitalizations are around 1,000 in Washington state on any given day, compared to 300 to 350 last June and July,” Briley said. “And that’s a reminder that 1,000 hospitalizations per day was the peak of the surge that we had in December of 2020,” which was then followed by mitigation measures such as shutdowns and limits on gatherings.
The bulk of those hospitalized remain the unvaccinated.
She noted that the state is averaging about 12-15 COVID deaths a day, with 177 COVID patients statewide on ventilators, down from 187 the previous week.
As the stress of high numbers of COVID patients weighs on hospitals, another trend in emergency visits has emerged, Briley noted.
“Compared to this summer, the number of emergency department visits for adolescent anxiety and depression roughly doubled to 320 per week. This is an increase of 45 percent and the number of emergency department visits for those conditions compared to a year ago,” she said. “And while the numbers are trending down a bit right now, we remain concerned about the overall high numbers because most of these kids in need of treatment are admitted through the emergency department.
“This puts additional pressure on the system overall. And this is especially true when we see pediatric emergency department visits for all types of conditions spiking.”
Dr. Mary Fairchok, medical director of Pediatric Infectious Disease Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, said that September was the busiest for the hospital, with 114 COVID admissions through the emergency department that month, compared with 65 in October’s preliminary count.
“Most of our kids that have been admitted actually fall in the under 2-year-old age group. But the majority of those who’ve been very sick and have had to go to the intensive care unit have actually been over age 10, and I don’t think any of them have been vaccinated,” she said.
She added along with the rise in COVID cases among kids has come “a dramatic rise” in children facing post-COVID complication called MIS-C, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
“We’ve had about 45 approximate cases of that condition, and the vast majority of those children do end up in the intensive care unit and with cardiac issues related to that,” she said.
Final emergency use authorization recommendations from the CDC for the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine for those ages 5-11 is expected this week. With that, hospital officials hope parents get their children vaccinated quickly once the shots are available.
“It’s really imperative to get this group vaccinated as quickly as possible as we head into the respiratory illness and holiday season,” said Dr. John Hawes, a pediatrician with Swedish Medical. “And these vaccines will make our schools safer, keep the kids in our community healthy and make it easier for kids to stay in school and not to worry about quarantine.”
Fairchok underscored the importance of getting kids vaccinated.
“We shouldn’t be minimizing what the effect of the virus is on this age group. It was still the sixth leading cause of death in 4 to 11 year olds during Delta,” she said. “Kids at this age are not supposed to die.”
Dr. Karthikeyan Muthuswamy, an emergency department physician in Lakewood with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, noted, “Every one of the patients in our ICU who’s COVID positive is unvaccinated.”
“I remember when I was here last year, I was very excited that at one point we’re going to get the vaccine. We’re going to squish this, this is not going to be a thing in 2021. And then 2021 just says, ‘Here hold my beer.’”
He said seeing the loss of life and damage from COVID has taken a toll among the health care workers.
“You know, taking care of any sick patient is not easy. But when you see it in younger and younger patients, it really really hurts your soul in a way that’s very difficult to describe,” Muthuswamy said.
“Compassion fatigue is real, and there’s a lot of frustration of our caregivers. They’re tired, they’re exhausted. They’ve been taking extra shifts, and taking care of a lot of patients that it really feels like could have been avoidable admissions if vaccines were accepted at a higher rate,” said Dr. Kevin Pieper, chief medical officer for Kadlec Medical Center serving the Tri-Cities area.
