Excela Health sees drop in covid hospitalization, keeps eye on new variants

Hospitalizations of covid patients at Excela Health facilities are decreasing and Westmoreland County appears to have missed any potential surge in coronavirus cases from the holiday season.

But now the system’s chief medical officer has something else to worry about — more infectious variants of the virus that are making their way around the globe.

There’s no way to know when or if those new strains might infect someone locally, but Dr. Carol Fox said she is thinking about what the potential impact could be if it does.

“I remain cautious in my thinking because you never know when things might change,” she said.

A case of the covid-19 variant first seen in the United Kingdom in December popped up in a positive test in central Pennsylvania on Jan. 7. Infectious disease experts have said the mutations seem to make the already highly contagious virus even more easily transmittable from person to person. It has been found several states.

A Brazil variant of the virus was found in Minnesota this month, and a new strain in South Africa prompted President Biden to enact restrictions on non-U.S. travelers from there. The South Africa strain was identified in South Carolina Thursday, according to the Associated Press

Social distancing, hand washing and wearing of face coverings are all good ways to prevent spreading the virus and its new, more contagious forms.

Still, the number of hospitalizations has been going down in the region recently after appearing to level off two weeks ago, according to state data. New cases have been decreasing, too. On Wednesday, there were 148 covid patients hospitalized in Westmoreland County. On Jan. 8, there were 184 people hospitalized — the highest since the pandemic arrived here in March.

On Nov. 1, that number was 46. One month later, it was 107. On Jan. 1, there were 167 covid patients hospitalized.

Excela Health has seen that recent decrease at its three hospitals — Westmoreland in Greensburg, Frick in Mt. Pleasant and Latrobe, Fox said. As a result, some of the extra space officials added weeks ago to care for covid patients has been scaled back.

Some previously-canceled elective procedures that required additional inpatient hospitalizations are now being rescheduled as restrictions in some situations are being relaxed because more space is available, Fox said.

“We’re still working case-by-case on some of those procedures,” she said.

Allegheny Health Network’s hospitals have taken similar steps, said Dr. Tariq Cheema, division director of pulmonary and critical care. The health system saw a peak of 400 covid patients hospitalized at one time, a number that has since dropped by about 60% to less than 150, he said.

While health care workers are seeing improvements, measures to prevent the spread of the virus are still incredibly important, he said.

“We should take this as a blessing that the numbers are down,” Cheema said. “With the numbers going down and the vaccine going up, that is a recipe for success.”

There were 505 covid patients at UPMC hospitals on Thursday, a huge drop in the 1,200 that were treated there during the peak in mid-December, said Dr. Donald Yealy, chair of emergency medicine. Health system officials are keeping the added space for those patients in place for now. The community should be upbeat about the downward trend of hospitalizations, “but it doesn’t mean we’re done with covid yet,” he said.

Yealy echoed the continued need for abiding by social distancing restrictions.

Health systems around the region added extra space for covid patients during a spike in new cases and hospitalizations that started in October and November. Staffing was an issue and front line health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated against the virus starting in December.

It’s too soon to say if the vaccine has made a difference in staffing levels at Excela’s hospitals. Employees have been able to stay healthy, but Fox said it was tough to pinpoint the exact reason — whether it be from immunizations, less community spread or something else.

“We have less employees who are out due to either exposure or illness,” she said.

Thousands of health system workers have been fully vaccinated and more are expected to get their second shots soon. Others have yet to receive the vaccine as health systems nationwide are awaiting a larger supply to meet the demand. Fox expected to receive more doses soon.