Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle: COVID cases rising again as new variant spreads
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The chief medical officer for Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle says that the number of COVID-19 patients they have has grown over the last month.
“COVID is here. It’s here to stay,” says Dr. James Martin. “People have let their guard down and I understand that but they still need to be smart about what they do.”
The latest report from the Mississippi State Department of Health shows just over 1,400 new cases of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization announced Tuesday that COVID cases have tripled in Europe during the last six weeks.
“We’re seeing an increase nationwide,” Dr. Martin says. “Here in Mississippi, Lowndes County is currently at a medium level. So are Oktibbeha and Clay (counties). Monroe (County) when I looked today, was at a high alert, according to the CDC.”
The hospital says it will have anywhere from five to 10 COVID inpatients at a time, with an average stay of 3-4 days.
“We went through probably several months where we had probably zero to two inpatients,” Dr. Martin says. “But the last 30 days, 45 days, we’ve seen that increase probably as high as 15 at times.”
He says that one reason is the rise of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is more transmissible, better at getting past the immune system and is causing almost two out of every three new COVID-19 cases.
“The biggest difference seems to be they don’t seem to be quite as sick on the inpatient side this time,” Dr. Martin says. “There’s still a lot of patients coming in the ER with some symptoms.”
Dr. Martin says the best way for Mississippians, or anyone, to guard against the newest COVID-19 strain is to take the same safety precautions laid out since the start of the pandemic.
“To me, the biggest thing is, if you’re sick, stay home,” he says. “If your child’s sick, keep them home.”
He also says they need to take full advantage of all treatment options, especially the vaccine, booster shots or pills like Paxlovid.
“You take it twice a day and it’s shown to work really well,” Dr. Martin says. “I’ve used it on several people. My dad included.”
Especially since things could get worse before they get better.
“I think we’ll continue to see a slight increase in cases, probably for the next several weeks and then again…when school starts back, we may see another little uptick,” Dr. Martin says. “But as long as we stay kind of where we are as far as the severity of illness, I think we’ll be able to get past this surge without any trouble.”
Dr. Martin also says that their current patient numbers are nowhere near the levels that overwhelmed the staff during previous waves of the pandemic.
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