By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Concerning new Covid numbers reported by Clallam County health officials Tuesday reveal that 2 more people have died from the virus for a total of 4 here, with 17 new cases added and 6 patients hospitalized.
Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank tells us more about the latest victims of the virus.
“Both were women who were over the age of 80. One had underlying health conditions, the other did not. And I think we have an unfortunate tendency, we hear some folks say, ‘Well, they’re over 80, so how concerning is that?’. And I think it’s important always to remember that these folks were the most important person to someone. So, our condolences go to their families.”
With around 70 new cases just in the last week, Dr. Unthank says she fully expects the current surge to get worse before it gets better, and that’s before we would factor in any positive cases that may result from Thanksgiving Day gatherings.
With 6 patients hospitalized and more expected in the coming days, we asked Dr. Unthank to talk about Olympic Medical Center’s capacity to care for Covid patients.
“We only have probably about 20 rooms in OMC that could tolerate a patient with severe covid-19 infection. You have to have a certain kind of room, you have to have a ventilator, if you need that, someone who can operate that ventilator, and something called a negative pressure room where you can really control the air flow so that that patient doesn’t infect nearby patient. So our Healthcare System is small and we have very limited resources.”
Typically, OMC sends its most critical patients to hospitals in King or Snohomish County when possible, but that option has all but vanished.
“Unfortunately, we have always historically sent our sickest folks across the water, and we are already experiencing that that’s not possible. We had some patients over the weekend who were so sick that we needed to transfer them out, and it took an incredible amount of work to find anywhere that would take them. We need to know that this is serious and we all have to do our part. Our healthcare workers are working as hard as they can to take care of us, and we need to do our work as well.”