COVID-19 levels continue to fluctuate throughout Washington state as colder weather drives people inside, with health and hospital officials reporting some positive declines but high levels of illness.
Compared to last week, some virus trends are "pretty significantly better," Washington State Hospital Association CEO Cassie Sauer said during a Monday morning news conference.
According to Sauer, the state recorded about 12% fewer COVID hospitalizations in the past week than the week prior, with 865 hospitalizations compared to 968. About 120 of those patients are on ventilators, about a 29% decline in the last week — which accounts for both patients who are discharged after recovering and those who die while intubated.
In October, Washington's average number of total hospitalizations on a given day was about 1,087, Sauer added. The number of new hospitalizations per day, however, is significantly higher than it was this time last year, with about 93 admissions per day currently compared to about 50 last November.
The state's epidemiologist, Dr. Scott Lindquist, reported similar trends last week, noting an optimistic increase in community immunity, from both vaccination and natural immunity.
More rural parts of the state, however, continue to struggle with high infection rates, said Nicole Eddins, a senior director at Mason Health in Shelton.
Death rates throughout the state have continued to inch downward since early September, though Sauer said Monday an average of 10 to 15 Washingtonians are still dying from the virus every day. She's frustrated that "we're sort of accepting that as a society," she said, fueling continued urgency around vaccines and booster shots.
As of last week, more than 740,000 additional doses — either boosters or third doses — have been administered in the state, according to the state Department of Health. And there's still "plenty of supply," said Renee Rassilyer-Bomers, Swedish's chief quality officer who organizes the hospital's community vaccine sites.
"We're seeing evidence of waning immunity, so I strongly encourage anyone who's eligible to take advantage of (boosters)," Dr. Seth Cohen, medical director of infection prevention at the University of Washington Medical Center, said Monday.
"But the biggest difference that we can make is getting first doses, rather than third doses," he added. "That's what's really going to change the pandemic in our region."
Pediatric doses are still harder to come by, said Rassilyer-Bomers. During the first weekend after the kid-sized shot was approved federally, Swedish vaccinated more than 2,000 kids. The next weekend, they vaccinated about 300.
"It's not because of lack of desire to get shots. ... We have a need for more pediatric dosing," Rassilyer-Bomers said. "We're putting in our request every single week and hope to be able to increase it to better thresholds."
Hospital workers, meanwhile, continue to see an increase in vaccination levels in the weeks since the state's immunization deadline for health care, hospital and school employees. As of Monday, about 94% of hospital staff have been fully vaccinated, compared to about 88% last month, according to a recent survey of state health care facilities.
"With the continued hospital surges, along with lower staffing levels, it's definitely saturated our resources a bit, but we continue to do everything we can to provide the vaccine," Eddins said. "We know that that's our way out of this."
