York Hospital caring for 10 people with COVID as Maine braces for omicron variant

YORK, Maine — Despite all the progress made in the past year to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, the number of people with the virus currently admitted at York Hospital has crept upward recently, nearing levels the facility documented at the height of the initial wave 11 months ago.

Ten people with COVID were hospitalized at the facility, as of Thursday, Dec. 16, including three people in intensive care, according to spokesperson Jean Kolak.

The current number of COVID hospitalizations is the highest York Hospital has seen since last winter's surge, when there were 12 inpatients with the virus at the facility in January, according to infectious disease physician Dr. Evangeline Thibodeau.

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"I believe that our local positivity rate of 12% in York County is the highest since last winter as well," Thibodeau said.

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Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jennifer Cutts said Thursday that the hospital is keeping a close eye on the situation but – unlike some other hospitals in the region – still had not made any service changes related to the recent increase in COVID inpatient activity.

"The uptick is the result of the high level of community transmission we are currently experiencing," Cutts said.

It's not just York Hospital that's seeing near-record levels of COVID hospitalizations. Statewide, there were 381 people with the virus currently hospitalized, including 114 in intensive care units and 66 on ventilators, as of Thursday, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although the omicron variant of the coronavirus has not yet been detected in the state, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said during a press briefing Thursday that his team believes the new variant is already present, while the delta variant continues to wreak havoc.

Omicron is speeding around the world and may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row. Even if omicron proves milder on the whole than delta, it may disarm some of the lifesaving tools available and put immune-compromised and elderly people at particular risk.

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“Our delta surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. And on top of that, we’re going to add an omicron surge,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School.

“That’s alarming, because our hospitals are already filling up. Staff are fatigued,” leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of COVID-19 cases “from an omicron wave superimposed on a delta surge.”

Scientists around the world are racing to understand omicron, which has a large number of worrisome mutations in important regions of its genetic structure that could affect how it spreads from person to person. How quickly the number of cases doubles, known as “doubling time,” can give a preview of what the disease burden could be in a few weeks.

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U.S. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that early data suggests omicron is more transmissible than delta, with a doubling time of about two days.

Health officials called on Americans to get vaccinated, get their booster shots, wear masks indoors and get tested before traveling and before holiday gatherings.

“Hospital capacity is already at a breaking point in many states because of severe cases of COVID-19,” Michael Fraser, CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a statement.

This report includes material from Steven Porter for Seacoast Media Group and from Laura Ungar and Carla K. Johnson for the Associated Press.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York Hospital has 10 COVID patients as Maine braces for omicron