With rising Pa. COVID-19 rates, officials remind public about ‘being prudent’ with masks, vaccines

Compared to several months ago, the number of COVID-19 infections in our area - particularly serious ones that require hospitalization - may seem low.

But according to numbers from the Mayo Clinic, positive recorded COVID-19 test rates this week in Pennsylvania are at 14 percent. That’s up from about five percent this time last month. And health officials in the central Pennsylvania region are noting this increase, and hoping that the public does the same.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed that “those trends do indicate an increase in case counts over the past month,” even if that doesn’t necessarily signal a surge such as we’ve seen at the heights of the pandemic.

“More importantly, however, is that hospitalizations (although inching upward) remain relatively low,” read a statement from a Department of Health spokesperson, “as hospitals are not near capacity or feeling the type of strain they experienced during the omicron and delta surges.”

A total of 31 patients are currently hospitalized at Penn State Health’s four medical centers in this area, according to Penn State Health spokesperson Barbara Schindo. Only two of those 31 are in ICU care.

“This is a bit of an uptick from last month – for example, around this time last month there were seven inpatients across the four hospitals,” Schindo said. “In comparison with earlier this year – for much of January the health system was treating over 200 COVID inpatients. In mid-January, the health system had more than 240 COVID patients.”

However, that uptick may be cause for concern in the near future.

For one thing, an increase in positive tests recorded by the CDC may only be the tip of the iceberg.

“Cases are definitely up across a lot of the United States, including in our area,” said Dr. Catharine Paules, infectious diseases physician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “A number of people are now testing at home, so we’re not necessarily tracking those positive tests.”

Paules said there was no way to know how many people were testing positive for COVID-19 at home, but in her own practice, she estimated that “for every one case that I see go through, I have you know five to ten patients, or family members or friends, that tell me they tested positive on a rapid [test].”

So, while estimates with any sort of accuracy may be impossible, Paules’ concern is that public health officials are “grossly undercounting” actual rates of COVID-19 infection.

Fortunately, Paules said, compared to even a few months ago, there are many new tools in making sure that people don’t get seriously ill from COVID-19, ranging from effective and safe vaccines and booster shots to new therapeutic medications for those who do contract the disease.

The key, she said, is that “we have to implement those tools.”

“There are very cheap, easy, effective ways of protecting yourself, like wearing a mask,” Paules said. “Obviously, that’s most effective if everybody masks, but there is protection for you as well as an individual. So, you know, especially if you’re very vulnerable in terms of your health conditions now is definitely the time to start masking.”

Ryan Coyle, a spokesperson for WellSpan Health, said that compared with this January, the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 are only a fraction of what they were. He estimated current numbers to be below 100 across all WellSpan hospitals, as compared to over 500 at the beginning of this year.

But the rising community infection rates were still a cause for concern, he said.

“As of last week, our facilities returned to masks being required in all patient care areas, by both patients and team members and employees,” Coyle said. “There was a time where we were able to discontinue that. But unfortunately, based on the rising level of community transmission, we have returned to masking in our patient care areas.”

Coyle confirmed that WellSpan’s hospitals will be prepared to take in more COVID-19 patients should another surge hit, with plans for “COVID floors, if you will, of the hospital can be converted if need be.” But the best thing for the community would be for the public to resume some of the basic COVID-19 precautions.

“I think it’s just being prudent in your environment,” Coyle said. “When you are in a space where it seems crowded enough that you cannot socially distance from people that you are familiar with their vaccination status, we would recommend they mask. That is indoor settings that are crowded. Every individual has to make that determination based on their surroundings. But we do recommend masking in indoor spaces where that distancing cannot occur.”

The Department of Health statement asked that “people who do test positive using an at-home test to take the appropriate action, such as isolating and informing close contacts about their positive test,” and that anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated please take advantage of the safe and effective vaccine.

“The Department of Health continues to remind the public that the pandemic is not over, and that people should feel empowered to take preventative action to protect themselves and their families, including getting up to date with their vaccines,” the statement said. “The department is strongly urging Pennsylvanians to utilize the top tool available against the virus - the vaccine - which provides strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and deaths.”

Waves such as this one aren’t likely to be the last, Paules said, noting her own concerns about another surge of new infections this fall. And that could mean this won’t be the last time we hear about resuming certain precautions.

“I think it’s going to be this balancing act as we learn how to deal with this infection long term,” she said. “And so, I think we as the healthcare community need to do a good job of communicating when risk is increasing.”

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