MOREHEAD, Ky. (WKYT) – Kentucky is going through yet another surge of COVID-19 cases, and rural parts of the state are no exception.
On Wednesday, Rowan County hit a record high of 34 cases, according to the Gateway District Health Department’s Facebook page.
That’s compared to 19 cases reported on Tuesday, and the case count in the single digits just days ago.
St. Claire HealthCare employees are preparing to fill more beds in the coming weeks. They said they’re making changes based on what they’ve learned over the past several months.
“We’ve actually been working on our surge plan,” said Dr. Thadis Cox, who works on the COVID-19 response team. “We had an initial plan that we put in place back in March. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been adapting that plan.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the hospital was caring for four COVID-19 patients. Those individuals are treated in two separate areas.
“Right now the intensive care unit allows us to have 14 patients,” Dr. Cox said. “The medical surge unit allows us to have up to 19 patients.”
Although the hospital is not at or over capacity currently, Dr. Cox said the doctors and nurses are preparing for the possibility of an overflow.
There is evidence of rising case numbers even in more rural parts of the state. Starting Thursday morning, a city park in Morehead will be closed to the public.
“We were in the orange zone for quite some time, we switched over to the red zone about a week and a half ago, we’ve been on alarm basically since March and we’ve been working to improve our plan,” said Dr. Cox.
Going into the winter months, the campus will be able to add more beds to the isolated areas.
“One of the units upstairs would be changed to an acute med surge unit, which would allow us to accommodate 18 more patients at that point in time,” he said.
Personnel are prepared to be called in to help.
“It’s an all hands on deck policy,” Dr. Cox said. “We sent a memo out across the organization about a week and a half ago telling nursing staff that we would need to have them available at any and all times and they’ve been very receptive to that.”
Employees are keeping tabs on PPE.
“We’ve been keeping a daily count of PPE, we want to stay at least two weeks ahead of time,” Dr. Cox said.
Unlike the beginning of the pandemic when elective procedures were postponed by the governor’s administration, Dr. Cox said it’s a priority for other departments to stay up and running.
“We want patients to still feel comfortable to be able to come into the healthcare institution and know that they’re going to be safe,” he said.
Dr. Cox said St. Claire HealthCare hasn’t received any instructions regarding vaccine distribution yet.
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