ECRMC sees rise in COVID-19 patients

Imperial County hospital braces for second wave - CBS 13's Alexandra Rangel reports

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC), is seeing a second wave of coronavirus patients.

The hospital had seen major improvements in COVID-19 patients for several weeks they only had about a dozen coronavirus patients.

"We went from being as low to nine patients one day we then climbed to 15 then 17 and all of a sudden we're sitting at 31, 32 COVID-19 patients," said Adolphe Edward, ECRMC CEO.

Edward said ECRMC learned a lot from the first wave of coronavirus, which has helped the hospital enhance care at the hospital.

Some of the resources the county had like extra beds at the care facility at Imperial Valley College are no longer available, but Edward says that extra help can be activated if needed.

“The good news is the flu season is so low. It’s incredible, but it's because we’re doing this we’re washing hands, we’re masking and keeping distance," said Edward.

Edward says hospital staff learned a lot from the first wave of coronavirus and now they’re better equipped to keep fighting the virus.

Imperial County remains in the worst tier in California, although the county came close to moving to the next tier the steady rise in COVID-19 cases is now pushing the county farther away from making that a reality.

“On the COVID side unfortunately we’ve let our guards down in people's homes. For example that one family that we said 10 out of the 11 were covid positive and that’s in one household. So we’ve got to be careful even amongst ourselves where are the members in your house going to and what are they bringing back with them," said Edward.