Area hospitals shared similar experiences about COVID-19 in the Pocono business report.

At Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono, President Elizabeth Wise said, “You know it comes as no surprise to anyone that the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated not only the health care industry, but other industries as well.

Wise stressed that Lehigh Valley Network and LVH-Pocono is strong and has an incredible team of doctors, nurses, and medical staff.

More than 1,500 colleagues at LVH-Pocono and more than 38,000 community members throughout the network have received the vaccine.

Despite the recent surge in cases, Wise remarked on how far the hospital has come since last spring, and how much the medical community has learned about the virus.

“What they learned has enabled the hospital to implement many effective treatments to lessen the severity of the disease and increase the survival rate,” she said.

In a cautionary tone, Wise warned just because we have found more effective ways of treating the virus does not make it any less of a threat.

“The best hope of combating the COVID-19 is with the vaccine and I encourage everyone to get vaccinated, but even after your vaccination you must still wear a mask, practice social distancing and continue to wash your hands,” she said

Don Seiple, president of St. Luke’s University Health Network, thanked the community for their support.

“When I came here I realized how great of a community Monroe was, but during the pandemic when the community responded in such a great way, both business and individuals, bringing food, masks, PPV and first responders, as well as the nightly prayer service really showed how great, so I thank you.”

The hospital had to suspend all elective procedures and because people were not getting screened, they were missing or delaying treatments.

“There was a time for us in the spring when we really needed that support. It was really an uncertain time. You knew a little about the virus and how it progressed, but there was a lot unknown about the virus, and the need for the health care systems was in critical care beds,” he said.

Finally, summer had a positive effect on the virus, “Hospitalizations went down, severity decreased and positivity rates decreased. I think it was good for all of us. We got outside,” Seiple said.

Unfortunately the fall hospitalizations increased and after Thanksgiving there was a significant bump in COVID-19 patients. Seiple said he is grateful it didn’t go up as much as they expected.

“Monroe County has done a great job of masking and social distancing, and when you look at COVID in its positivity across Pennsylvania, and certainly across our region, although it’s high in Monroe, it’s not nearly as high as it is in some other counties,” Seiple said.

The president is hopeful that if we all continue the mitigation efforts and we mask and get the vaccine, we will see a decline in COVID followed by a return to normalcy, which he warns will take some time.

Seiple explained the rollout of the vaccine is going to take months, well into probably spring and summer.

“I echo Elizabeth’s sentiments that the vaccine is going to be the key to getting back to normalcy,” Seiple said.