Faced with crowded emergency rooms, overwhelmed intensive care units, exhausted medical staff, poor compliance with public health guidelines, and another surge in highly infectious COVID-19 variants, the hospital leaders in Cleveland once again called for vigilance and vaccinations vaccine.

According to statistics, Cuyahoga County has 199 cases per 100,000 residents, ranking third among all counties in the United States in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases “New York Times” data analysis Update Tuesday, December 21

Dr. Claudia Horn, co-director of infection control at the University Hospital, said at a joint media briefing with UH and the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday: “22 months have passed since this pandemic and it is causing losses.” “We Our hospital must continue to operate and serve all our patients, not just COVID patients.”

Hoyen is also responsible for pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Infant and Children’s Hospital, and he said it is important to know that the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 is more contagious. In fact, she said it is “the second most infectious virus on the planet”, second only to measles.

Horn said: “Let people understand that our position is very different from the actual situation two weeks ago. We all need to be vigilant. This is very important because of the number of potential infections, even if it turns out that this virus will not cause people. Suffering from a serious illness-we don’t know it yet; the information is still being provided-we must assume that it is as serious as Delta. If so, we will be surpassed.”

UH’s COVID test positive rate is higher than ever. There are more COVID-positive patients in the hospital than ever before. There are currently 394 people in the system, of which 19% are in the ICU. UH President Dr. Daniel Simon said that academic and external affairs Chief Scientific Officer. On Tuesday, with the support of the Ohio National Guard, the two systems opened a joint driving test site at the Walker Building.

Dr. Raed Dweik, chair of the Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Research Institute, said that in just two weeks, the positive test rate for symptomatic patients has doubled, from 25% to 50%. The detection rate for asymptomatic patients has also doubled, from 20% to 40%.

“But what worries me the most is that those who come to undergo surgery, for example, before the operation, before the operation, our test positive rate is less than 1%, and now it is close to 10%-almost 10 times higher,” Dewek Say. “These numbers are staggering. No wonder our hospitals are full of COVID cases.”

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He emphasized that 80% of COVID hospitalized patients are not vaccinated, and 90% of COVID patients in the ICU are not vaccinated. Others are considered vulnerable groups who have been vaccinated or have immune system problems for various reasons.

“In addition, unlike last year, we also saw flu and RSV this year, which really increased the burden of infection,” Dewick said. “Therefore, it is very important for us to truly ensure safety by sticking to the basic principles of wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and vaccinations (if you have not been vaccinated) or booster vaccines (if you have been vaccinated).”

Horn emphasized that vaccines are still the first and best line of defense for individuals, communities, and helping support hospitals. When people gather with friends and family in the next few days and weeks, she asks them to abide by the well-known content in the public health toolbox.

“All of us want this to end,” said Shannon Pengel, the chief nursing officer of the clinic’s main campus. “All of us want to return to normal, but please get vaccinated, wear masks in public, and maintain social distancing this holiday season.”

This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crane’s Cleveland business.