The fourth deadly wave of COVID-19 has made its way to Leflore County.
After going nearly four months without a death from the virus, the county posted two on Wednesday, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Meanwhile, Greenwood Leflore Hospital said that its intensive care unit is full, reporting for the first time publicly that a second intensive care unit it had created in 2020 to deal solely with COVID-19 patients was closed in July due to previously low patient numbers and a national nursing shortage.
Both of the latest victims of the virus died Sunday at the hospital, according to Christine Hemphill, a hospital spokeswoman. One was a man in his 70s, the other a woman in her 30s.
They were among 25 deaths from COVID-19 that occurred in Mississippi between July 28 and Tuesday, according to the latest update from the Health Department.
The Health Department’s report also upped the number of Leflore County residents in long-term care facilities who have died from the virus to 55, three more than it had been previously showing. It was uncertain whether the change included either of the latest two victims, or was a correction of previously reported numbers.
Of Leflore County’s total of 127 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, 43% had been living in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.
In the early stages of the pandemic, the coronavirus disproportionately impacted nursing home residents because of their age and poor health. The toll on them, though, had slowed down considerably after vaccines became available late last year. Nursing home residents were among the first to be vaccinated and at higher rates than the general population.
Mississippi health officials have been reporting that the latest surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations has maxed out intensive care units throughout the state.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital has reached that point, in part because it decided last month to reduce its ICU capacity by almost half.
During the early months of the pandemic, the Greenwood hospital converted an underutilized wing into a second intensive care unit, which was dedicated to solely treating patients suffering from the highly contagious virus. It later swapped the two intensive care units, reducing the capacity of the COVID unit from 16 beds to 14.
That unit continued to operate, filling up at times during previous surges, until some point in July. Gloria Boyd, the chief nursing officer, said in a statement provided Wednesday by the hospital that after “many weeks of zero to one COVID patients, a decision was made to close the COVID Unit and reassign the nursing staff to other units.”
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the lone operating ICU unit at the Greenwood hospital was considered full. Fifteen of its 16 beds were occupied, five by COVID patients. The lone empty bed is reserved for acute cardiac emergencies. Boyd said that the COVID patients are “isolated in negative pressure rooms in accordance with clinical guidelines.”
A coronavirus task force at the hospital has had discussions about reopening the COVID unit, but that decision will be based on staffing, according to Hemphill. A national nursing shortage has added to the difficulties of dealing with a pandemic that has produced another sharp increase in infections.
Mississippi, which for a couple of months seemed to have the virus under control, now has the third-highest infection rate in the nation, behind only Florida and Louisiana. A combination of vaccine resistance and the delta variant have fueled the latest surge. All 82 Mississippi counties are in the highest risk, or red, zone, according to the tracking done by the Brown School of Public Health.
Leflore County has the 61st highest rate in the state at 5.73 cases per 10,000 residents. Carroll County is two spots better with a rate of 5.6. The state average is 8.87.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
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