close

COVID cases continue to spike in Fayette, Washington counties

By Karen Mansfield newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 2 min read
article image -

COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Fayette County, where 11 deaths have been reported since Nov. 23.

The state Department of Health reported Tuesday that 460 deaths have occurred in the county since the start of the pandemic.

A total of 20,546 cases have been reported.

In Washington County, there has been a 38% increase in average cases per day from the average two weeks ago.

The number of average new cases in the county in November has been the highest since December 2020.

“Overall, we are as bad as, or worse than where we were in November 2020,” said Washington Health System Chief Operating Officer Dr. John Six. “We are certainly in a surge right now.”

Health officials, too, are waiting to see how the omicron variant behaves: Does it cause more serious illness, and is it resistant to the vaccines?

“There are lots of unknowns heading into Christmas,” said Six.

Six urged those who aren’t vaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccine. He also encourages people who got vaccinated to get their booster.

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than vaccinated people, and they’re more than seven times as likely to die from the disease.

“The vaccines do protect against significant disease, they’re effective, and they’re safe,” said Six. “We have better monoclonal antibodies, we have better inpatient treatments, we have a significant amount of PPE, and we’re doing a better job of managing patients. But the silver lining is, we have the vaccines. It’s important to get vaccinated, or to get the booster.”

In Washington County, 428 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded since the start of the pandemic, including eight new deaths from Nov. 24 to 29.

In Greene County, 65 coronavirus deaths have been reported.

As families plan holiday get-togethers, Six advises them to “do all of the things we’ve been doing for the last 20 months or so” – get vaccinated, wear masks, and social distance.

“It’s a rough time right now,” said Six, “but we as a health care system are doing everything we can to continue to serve the patients in our community.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today