YRMC shares health concerns for holiday season
Slight COVID surge expected in January - 13 On Your Side's Arlette Yousif reports
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA/KECY) - Another COVID holiday is fast approaching. As time has passed since the beginning of the pandemic, things are a bit different this year.
After Thanksgiving weekend, Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) reports seeing a slight increase in COVID cases. Usually, the hospital has roughly 55 COVID patients at any given time. After the holiday, that number was closer to the mid 60 range. Still, we’re not in the clear.
"What we are worried about is the general sickness. I think this is a regular-season for us, for a very busy season for all congestive heart failures, pneumonias, and this year we already started to see flu in the outpatient side," says Yuma Regional Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bharat Magu.
YRMC is preparing for a COVID surge even though health leaders don’t expect it to be high. Plans to add more beds to the COVID wing, making sure resources are available and possibly eliminating other elements, if necessary.
"You know, reduce or stop our elective procedures, so that we are not doing procedures in our outpatient surgery department and use that staff to help us out on the inpatient side," explains Dr. Magu.
Some locals are ready to gather with loved ones, regardless of where the numbers stand.
"We’re having relatives coming [to] visit us, the grandchildren, and sons and daughters, and we’re all havin’ a get-together-for Christmas," says Yuma local Jack Olsen.
"It will be pretty much business as usual, as normal. We’ve all been vaccinated. We’ve all had boosters, so we feel pretty safe doin’ that," explains Yuma local Jeff Chaon.
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) reports that in October, unvaccinated people were more than 15 times likely to die from COVID-19 and almost four times more likely to contract the virus in the first place… in comparison to those who are fully vaccinated.
So far, none of the positive COVID patients at YRMC have tested positive for the Omicron variant. Dr. Magu says that the best way to protect yourself from COVID is to not only be fully vaccinated but to get your booster shot.
