COVID-19 in the Quad-Cities: Surging cases, increasing deaths, exhausted health care workers

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    Quad Cities (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) — Quad-City hospital executives offered grim facts about COVID-19 in the community during a press conference Thursday: Case counts are rising, hospital beds are filling up and doctors and nurses are getting sick with the virus.

UnityPoint Health-Trinity President and CEO Robert Erickson said in the past two weeks the health system had gone from 25 COVID-19 patients to 48 patients, 19 in the ICU.

“In Rock Island, every COVID-19 bed was full,” Erickson said. “And everyone was on a ventilator.”

Of those who become hospitalized in the Trinity system, the death rate is 9-10%, he said.

The press conference came as Rock Island County reported two additional deaths from the virus on Thursday, and 149 new cases, surpassing 5,000 total cases. The total now stands at 5,089 cases with 108 deaths. Scott County reported an additional death, for a total of 51, with 284 new cases confirmed. The county total is at 5,777 cases.

“If the presence of COVID-19 in our communities is a marathon and not a sprint — then we are entering the hardest leg of this race to date,” Erickson said. “It’s crucial for the Quad-Cities to understand that the challenges we are facing are very real and urgent. The entire UnityPoint Health System is seeing an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.”

Erickson pointed out that at the beginning of October, Trinity was administering COVID-19 tests to roughly 85 symptomatic people a day. That number is now well over 200 a day.

In early October, the positivity rate was around 20%. In the past two days. the positivity rate has been 37%.

Genesis President and CEO Doug Cropper boiled down the challenges faced by all health systems.

“We at Genesis have talked about three concerns that could place additional pressure on health system resources and result in continued increases in hospitalization of COVID-19 patients,” he said. “Those concerns are increased hospitalization numbers, high local positivity rates of symptomatic patients being tested and high number of tests being ordered.”

On Oct. 28, Genesis had 48 COVID-19 hospitalizations. By Nov. 5 that number climbed to 56. Cropper added that on Nov. 1 the positivity rate was 31% and has settled at a seven-day rolling rate of 23%.

Cropper said COVID-19 infections were spreading to hospital staffs and nurses. In the past two weeks, 70 Genesis employees have tested positive — all were infected while at home or in the public.

Cropper and Erickson said the toll the virus was taking from health care professionals was not sustainable.

“Like other health care organizations, adequate staffing remains an issue for our system, with an increasing number of our staff out with COVID-19 associated with community spread or isolating at home,” Erickson said. “Additionally, our staff is both physically and mentally exhausted. They’ve been fighting this virus, and fighting for their patients, for eight months. They continue to show up every single day for you, your friends and your family. Try to tell an ICU nurse who has watched people die from this disease that masks don’t work and that this is all a hoax.”

Illinois health officials recorded 9,935 new infections, pushing the state total since March to 447,491, with 10,030 deaths. Iowa health officials reported 5,015 new infections, for a total of 141,373 cases with 1,802 deaths.

Illinois officially started mitigation efforts Wednesday, though some restaurants and bars are defying them.

“As you know by now, all restaurants and bars in Illinois are closed for inside dining because of spiking COVID-19 numbers. The entire state has entered mitigation measures under the governor’s Restore Illinois plan,” said Nita Ludwig, the Rock Island Health Department administrator. “We understand how frustrating this is for business owners and patrons. But as with all decisions within the state’s plan, there is a scientific reason behind it. A recent CDC study showed adults with a positive COVID-19 test were about twice as likely to have dined inside a restaurant than those adults with a negative test.

“The reason for this is simple: when you are eating and drinking, you take off your mask. We know that masks dramatically reduce the transmission of the virus. We also know that the virus transmits more readily indoors than outside, which is why outside dining still is allowed under the state’s plan. Some establishments are getting creative as the weather is becoming colder.”

Rock Island County and all of Region 2 could come out of mitigation measures on Nov. 18 if metrics improve.

In her first press conference since Oct. 7, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds pointed to Republican incumbent wins in Tuesday’s election, calling that validation of Iowa’s efforts to deal with the pandemic. But rising cases, deaths and hospitalizations are prompting her to urge Iowans to “double down” on their COVID-19 mitigation efforts. She plans to roll out a new ad campaign next week.

Ed Rivers, director of the Scott County Health Department, expressed worry over the county’s case counts.

“Since our last briefing last Thursday, Oct. 29, the Iowa Department of Public Health has reported eight COVID-19 deaths of Scott County residents: five older adults aged 61 to 80 and three elderly adults, over 80 years of age,” Rivers said. “We are increasingly concerned as more people in our community die as a result of this virus. Scott County’s dangerously high daily case counts will cause even more deaths in the upcoming days and weeks.”

Rivers said some daily totals topped 160 cases. The 14-day average positivity rate for Scott County has increased to 16.7%.

School districts in Iowa are required to comply with Iowa’s Return to Learn Plan, which does not require schools to move to remote learning when positive rates hit high levels. It also does not automatically authorize schools to move to remote learning when positivity rates increase.

Once a county reaches a 14-day average positivity rate of 15% or higher, school districts may request to move online, but only for a 14-day period. The decision is made independently by each school district and must be approved by the Iowa Department of Education and Department of Public Health.

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