Tri-State prepares for potential COVID-19 surge
Washington County officials coordinating the community response to the pandemic said Monday it will take "cooperation from all of Washington County to get our positivity rate back down."
The goal is to get the positivity rate — a seven-day rolling average — back under 2%, according to the county's COVID-19 Joint Information Center.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continued to soar locally and nationally, Washington County saw its positivity rate spike at 8.49% on Saturday — a high point since late April.
"The number one factor to decrease the positivity rate is for citizens to recognize the risk of contracting the virus from gatherings," an email from the Joint Information Center said. "Hosting or attending a gathering of any size with people outside of your household is not only putting yourself at risk, but also risking ... the health and lives of those who are attending. It will also take the commitment from County leaders and all citizens to continue wearing a face mask, washing hands frequently, and watching your distance."
The county hasn't seen a positivity rate remain consistently under 2% since June and early July.
Many people might be experiencing "COVID fatigue, thinking the virus is over and everyone can go back to their everyday activities as if the virus no longer exists," wrote officials at the Joint Information Center.
"This is certainly far from the truth, as the numbers have shown over the last week. In addition, cooler temperatures are causing activities to be moved indoors, where the virus is more likely to spread."
It has been scientifically proven that wearing a mask helps mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, but wearing a mask "does not mean that COVID-19 doesn't exist," according to the Joint Information Center.
"We hope that if a person is out in public, they are wearing a face covering that properly covers their mouth and nose. However, to be safest while out in public, it is best to wear a face covering AND keep a distance of at least 6 feet from others who are not in the same household," county officials wrote.
Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 should stay home except to get medical care, the email said.
Most people who contract the virus have mild symptoms and can recover at home without medical care, but they still should not visit public areas or leave their homes except to get medical care, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance the Joint Information Center shared.
Hospital readiness
If the number of COVID-19 cases in Washington County continues to rise, Meritus Health is prepared — to a point.
Meritus President and CEO Maulik Joshi reiterated in an email Monday that Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown can add 100 more beds as needed.
"Potential census and placement of patients is part of our daily conversation in our incident command center," Joshi said.
COVID-19 surged through Washington County last week, resulting in new high numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
As of Monday, there have been a total of 53 COVID-related deaths in Washington County, according to an email from county spokeswoman Danielle Weaver.
The county hadn't updated several stats on its COVID-19 website as of presstime Monday, but the Maryland Department of Health was reporting 3,070 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Washington County since the pandemic began, as of its Monday morning update. That's 262 more cases than the county's last report on Friday.
After hitting 8.49% on Saturday, the county's positivity rate came down to 8.14% as of Sunday, according to the county's website Monday morning.
There were 36 people hospitalized with COVID at Meritus Medical Center as of Friday, according to the county's website.
Joshi said in the email that the "key message continues to be that everyone must follow the public health directives to wear a mask, wash their hands and watch their distance to others." He said Meritus employees were "true health care heroes," who treated patients day and night.
"If we all work together, we can again flatten the curve and bring this pandemic to an end," Joshi said.
Maryland added 1,726 cases in a 24-hour period, the state health department reported Monday. There were 985 people hospitalized, an increase of 47 in a 24-hour period.
The state also added seven more deaths to total 4,160.
Berkeley County
Berkeley Medical Center has been experiencing a steady increase in the number of inpatient COVID-19 patients for about three weeks, and had 17 on Monday as opposed to 20 on Friday, spokeswoman Teresa McCabe said.
“At this time, we are experiencing an increase in COVID-19 positive inpatients, but are not at our surge capacity,” she said.
“We also look at trends specific to the pandemic to estimate the surge in demand for hospital-based services — surge capacity,” she said.
That includes the number of COVID-19 patients who need to be hospitalized, the number requiring intensive care and the number requiring ventilator support, she said.
McCabe said patient privacy issues prohibit her from specifying how many of those patients are in the intensive care unit.
The center currently has two dedicated inpatient pandemic units open and additional space is available there, but the facility can also open another dedicated unit if needed, she said.
“We review our census daily and look at the acuity level of our patients to assure we have adequate staffing, personal protective equipment and bed capacity to meet their needs,” she said.
As a result, there is no need to transfer patients at this time, she said.
Staff writer Jenni Vincent contributed to this report.