Jill Schramm/MDN Lacey McNichols, vaccine coordinator at First District Health Unit, speaks at a COVID-19 briefing in Minot City Hall Tuesday.

Local health officials are encouraging the public to vaccinate and take mitigation measures as COVID-19 cases increase in the Minot region.

First District Health Unit and Trinity Health held a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday to explain the scope of spreading infections and provide information about vaccines.

Trinity Health has again dedicated an entire floor to COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Jeffrey Sather, chief medical officer at Trinity Health.

Over the last several months, Trinity saw three to five hospitalized COVID-19 patients a day, he said. Recently, 22 to 25 hospitalized patients has been typical, which remains below the peak of about 70 patients a day last fall.

Trinity is seeing about 20 COVID-19 patients a day in its emergency department.

“So overall, we’re seeing one in five patients have COVID in our hospital, whether that’s in the ER or on the floors. To dedicate resources to one disease for 20% of the volume on a given day in our hospitalized setting is unprecedented,” Sather said. “We’ve seen pediatric patients admitted to our hospital – probably the Delta variant that we did not see in the last fight.”

“I said this last year and I say it again – it’s a preventable catastrophe,” said Dr. Casmiar Nwaigwe, Trinity infectious disease specialist and health officer with First District Health Unit. “We know enough about the virus to prevent the illness. We know about mitigation strategies but, unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there that is causing people to lower their guard and expose themselves and take unnecessary risks.”

He said unvaccinated individuals are 29 times more likely to be infected than vaccinated individuals. Locally, hospitalizations of vaccinated individuals are occurring among those older than 60 with underlying health conditions and particularly among those older than 80.

“If the younger people who are more likely to mount more robust immune response to the vaccine get vaccinated and don’t get the virus, we wouldn’t be seeing breakthrough cases in people who have weakened immune systems,” Nwaigwe said.

The percentage of vaccinated people presenting for care at Trinity is higher than nationally, but overwhelmingly, it’s the unvaccinated who are the sickest patients requiring hospital care, Sather said.

During August, Trinity treated 58 in-patients for COVID-19 and saw three deaths. Average age of those hospitalized was 58, which is significantly lower than a year ago, he said.

“A large percentage of patients now have no underlying diseases. So, these are young, healthy people that are landing in our hospital,” said Sather, who noted the toll the pandemic is taking on health care workers.

“It’s been going on for a year and a half for health care workers. Health care workers are exhausted and, unfortunately, we’re losing health care workers at an unprecedented rate across the country and not just here,” Sather said.

Although personal protective equipment and other supplies are adequate, staffing is the handicap, he added.

“That’s not only our challenge here at Trinity. It’s challenged other hospitals around the state and around the region, around the country,” he said.

Sather spoke about how a tightened ability to access care is eliminating choice for health-care consumers, citing his own case last year as an example. His first choice for treatment was unavailable because a facility that offered it couldn’t accommodate him, and he had to go with his second choice.

Trinity has received calls from across North Dakota and from Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota to take patients because facilities there lack either an intensive care unit bed or space to serve patients who need specialty care, Sather said. Trinity also has sent patients elsewhere at times, and some patients remain longer in smaller hospitals while waiting for an opening in a regional center, he said.

“I just want to put an appeal out there to talk about mitigation of the virus again, because we’re starting to get inundated with patients at our hospital,” Sather said. “We’re keeping up with difficulty, but patients are being transferred across the state, and across state lines – finding that hospital that has the capability on any given day,” Sather said.

Trinity Vice President Randy Schwan said Trinity Hospital is in the “moderate” visitor restriction category, having stepped up restrictions a couple of weeks ago. The restrictions limit patients to one visitor a day. If COVID-19 positive, visitation is granted on a case-by-case basis. At out-patient clinics, one asymptomiatic adult may accompany a patient. Masking is required at all Trinity facilities.

First District also continues to recommend masking, social distancing and other mitigation measures by the public.

Lisa Clute, executive director at First District Health Unit, said COVID-19 testing has been increasing substantially, although it remains below levels of a year ago.

Over the past two weeks, First District has provided 5,701 tests to symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. During the same 14-day period a year ago, the health unit had conducted 7,184 tests, but the percentage of tests coming back positive was lower.

First District provides rapid and PCR testing every morning. People must call ahead for appointments.

First District has ramped up its call center to full capacity to take public inquiries and schedule testing at 852-1376. People also can obtain the latest COVID-19 information at fdhu.org or on the First District Health Unit’s Facebook page.

Lacey McNichols, vaccine coordinator at First District, reported 35,231 individuals in the district’s seven counties have had at least one dose of vaccine. First District administered 248 first doses last week. First District has given more than 64,000 total doses of the vaccines, with vaccination percentages ranging from 44.2% to 51.8% in the counties.

Trinity Health also provides vaccination at its clinics and at mass events on Fridays. People can call 857-2515. A Saturday mass event is being planned.

“The safest thing to do is get the vaccine,” said McNichols, who noted more data exists on vaccine safety than on long-term effects of the COVID-19 virus. The spike proteins in the mRNA vaccines are released from the body in two to three weeks, while the virus can remain in the body for months, she said.

First District still is waiting to hear when a second booster dose will be available for the general public. McNichols said information is expected in a couple of months. Trinity Health is planning for a possible mass vaccination for the second booster in October.

The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been hard to come by nationally, but North Dakota recently received some doses, McNichols said. First District has received 50 of those doses.

McNichols also advises people to get their flu shots. First District will begin offering the shots Tuesday. People can go to the health unit’s website to schedule an appointment in the same manner as scheduling a COVID-19 vaccination.