Odessa is seeing another spike in COVID cases.
In a span of 96 hours, inpatient COVID numbers at Medical Center Hospital jumped by 30.
The number of COVID patients at MCH as of Monday morning was 86, which was almost nearly double from a week ago. Numbers as of Jan. 4 were 47.
MCH president and CEO Russell Tippin said via phone Monday afternoon about the most recent spike.
“It’s definitely what we didn’t want to see,” he said. “It’s not unexpected, but it’s something that we didn’t want. The rate has grown substantially over the last seven to 10 days. We can directly contribute that to holiday gatherings whether that’s Christmas or New Year’s.”
Tippin said he can’t be sure of the type of variant that’s spreading throughout the city and county, but he expects it is Omicron. He also said that there are cases of people battling influenza and COVID, which is called “Flurona.”
Due to COVID increasing, Tippin said the hospital will maintain its current visitation policies, but he explained that could change if numbers continue to rise. MCH’s visitation policies can be seen here: tinyurl.com/nh5jdm67.
“We have talked about visitation, but we haven’t done anything as of right now,” Tippin said. “Our policy will stay the same but we are monitoring that all the time.
“If we wake up and we are at 100 or 120 by Friday, I think we are going to have to do something to slow it down. To protect the staff and the patients in here, because we have patients that don’t have COVID. We have to remember that. We have to protect those people and our staff.”
Tippin said elective surgeries will also continue, because he doesn’t want to add to the current backlog for those procedures. Tippin also said that could also change if COVID numbers continue to increase.
“I really want to keep our elective surgeries moving,” Tippin said. “There’s just such a backlog of elective surgeries that I don’t want to delay those anymore. Then again, if all my surgery staff is sick, I might not have the choice. We are having to watch that very close.”
As of Monday morning, there are 29 COVID patients in critical care with 21 of those on ventilators. The critical care numbers include 15 unvaccinated, nine vaccinated and five unknown. Of the 21 COVID patients on ventilators, there are 12 unvaccinated, six vaccinated and three unknown.
