COVID-19 Numbers Dropping at St. Cloud Hospital
The amount of COVID-19 hospitalized patients within CentraCare and at St. Cloud Hospital are down. Dr. Mark Matthias is the Vice President for Acute Care at CentraCare. He says they have less than 100 COVID-19 patients within CentraCare and 74 at St. Cloud Hospital. Matthias says those in the St. Cloud Hospital ICU are also down to 22.
On January 7th CentraCare was reporting more than 130 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with as many as 44 in the ICU at St. Cloud Hospital. The test positivity rate was also exceeding 30%. Dr. Matthias says the community test positive rate has dropped below 30%. He says most of the patients at St. Cloud Hospital are believed to be suffering from the Omicron variant but they still have some patients from the Delta surge. Matthias says they currently have some staff out with Omicron which has made things more challenging staffing wise.
Matthias says the positive trend of less cases, hospitalizations and the decreased positivity rate has them optimistic that this decline will continue. He says other locations who were hit hard with Omicron are seeing a rapid decline in COVID-19 cases like the Northeast portion of the United States.
If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Dr. Mark Matthias it is available below.