WellSpan Health system, operator of eight hospitals in south-central Pennsylvania, including Lebanon’s Good Samaritan Hospital, is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 admissions.
“As of [Dec. 12, 2021],” WellSpan spokesman Ryan Coyle said in an email, “there were 414 COVID-19 patients in our hospitals, representing about 1/3 of all of our beds across the whole health system.”
One month earlier, WellSpan reported 225 admissions systemwide.
There were 418 COVID-19 admissions throughout WellSpan hospitals on Dec. 12, 2020.
Coyle described the increase in a Dec. 13 email. Citing data on WellSpan’s COVID-19 dashboard, he said, “as you can see, this surge is about to surpass that of last year.”
Locally, Coyle said that “WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital has 59 COVID-19 patients, and that is the highest number that hospital has ever seen since the start of the pandemic.”
As of Dec. 12, WellSpan reported a “Rolling 7-Day Average of New Confirmed and Probable Cases” in Lebanon County of 129, compared to 63 one week earlier.
Coyle pointed out that “[WellSpan doesn’t] release hospital-by-hospital data related to vaccination rates, but last week we did announce that roughly 90% of all patients hospitalized at WellSpan Health for COVID-19 are un-vaccinated. Closer to 92% of those in the ICU are un-vaccinated, and 93% of those requiring a ventilator are un-vaccinated.”
About 49% of Lebanon Countians have been fully vaccinated.
WellSpan reports that there have been 184 “Cumulative Total Number of Deaths of Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Patients” to date at Good Samaritan.
The hospital system’s published data does not break down cases by COVID-19 variant. There had been at least one reported case of the recently-identified Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania as of Dec. 12, none in Lebanon County.
Some preliminary reports suggest the the Omicron variant may be more contagious, but less harmful, than the widespread Delta variant.
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