Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is finally getting some breathing room in its volume of COVID-19 patients following sharp reductions in cases, both in the county and statewide.
As of Monday morning, the hospital had just nine coronavirus patients — only one of whom was vaccinated.
There were seven patients in the intensive care unit and four on ventilators.
None of the critical patients had been vaccinated, hospital officials said.
This hospitalization rate is in stark contrast to recent weeks, when the hospital reported a record daily high of 34 COVID-19 patients and 11 people on ventilators this time last month.
“It’s great to finally be on the down-side of the current COVID wave, as it has been a tremendously challenging month for all Mississippi hospitals,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Richardson said.
With hospitalizations stabilizing, this is the best time to shore up defenses and get more people vaccinated as the health care system is repairing itself, Richardson said.
“The advice from infectious disease experts is clear,” he said. “The best way to prevent seeing the same number of hospitalizations and deaths that came with the delta variant is to vaccinate as many of our community members as possible. The time for us to strengthen our defenses is now.”
The state reported 1,561 cases over the weekend with 42 deaths. This is down from the single-day highs of between 3,000 and 5,000 that were seen in August and September.
Of the 42 deaths, over half were reported through death certificates with death dates between Aug. 19 and Sept. 25.
