Booster shots are becoming available, and it may be just in time.

Pennsylvania hasn’t suffered as harshly with the delta variant as some states, in part due to our vaccination rate, but breakthrough cases are increasing.

Samuel Kennedy, director of corporate communications at St. Luke’s University Health Network, said 81.5% of their patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

“We are seeing a slightly higher rate of breakthroughs currently versus during the summer, when 94% of inpatients were unvaccinated,” he said.

Lehigh Valley Health Network is experiencing similar results.

Alex Benjamin, chief of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology at LVHN, said that currently, 80% of their patients testing positive for COVID-19 are not vaccinated.

“The number of hospitalized COVID patients is at its highest this current surge. It peaked around Sept. 7 and has been steady since then,” he said.

In the emergency room

Both Benjamin and Kennedy said the emergency departments are seeing more than 100 patients per day with COVID-19 symptoms at each hospital location. LVHN has nine hospitals and 20 Express Care sites. St. Luke’s has 12 hospitals and 18 Care Now sites.

For LVHN, Benjamin said, “At the beginning of this current surge, the hospital ED’s were seeing 40 to 50 people per day with COVID symptoms.”

Now, their Express Care sites are also seeing increased patient volumes.

Benjamin said that in July, all of LVHN’s 20 Express Care sites combined saw about 150 patients with COVID symptoms. Now, it’s 800 to 900 people per day.

Drastic number differences have also been seen at St. Luke’s.

“On July 12, we had a mere three inpatients for COVID,” Kennedy said. “That’s as close to zero as we have gotten since the start of the pandemic.”

Benjamin said, “Currently, there are 20 to 30 people every day being admitted to the hospitals for COVID.”

Most of these patients are adults, but five children have also been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 in this recent surge, he said.

Despite the number of patients being admitted for COVID, the total only amounts to 8% of LVHN’s current inpatients. The percentage of beds filled with COVID patients in the intensive care unit is higher, but there are still plenty of beds for other patients needing an ICU care.

“There are 31 COVID patients in the ICU, which is approximately 20% of our total ICU beds,” Benjamin said. “21 of the 31 ICU patients are intubated.”

On Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 5,071 additional positive cases of COVID-19. The cases were over 5,000 two days this week, and consistently over 4,000.

Totals were: Thursday, 5,489; Wednesday, 4,394; Tuesday, 4,939 and Monday, 12,686 for three days. Last Friday, 5,198 cases were reported.

Rates of virus

According to the state Department of Health’s COVID-19 early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, the highest rate of positive cases in the area from Sept. 10 to 16 was in Carbon County at 14.4%. Monroe County was 13.3%, Schuylkill at 12.8%, Northampton at 10.3% and Lehigh at 9.8%.

Northampton and Lehigh counties also have the highest rates of vaccination at 62.5% and 65.6% respectively, according to the state DOH. Carbon County is next at 55.7%, Schuylkill County at 54% and Monroe County at 52.4%.

In the five county region, Schuylkill County leads in the number of deaths from COVID-19 at 303.5 people per the common denominator of 100,000 people. The actual number is 429 people.

Carbon County is second highest in deaths with 288.2 people per 100,000 people. The actual number of deaths is 185 people.

Northampton and Lehigh counties are third and fourth with 245.3 people and 242.9 people per 100,000 respectively. Actual number of deaths are 749 people and 897 people.

Monroe County had the lowest with 202.6 people per 100,000, and an actual number of deaths at 345 people.

The Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee approved booster shots for adults 65 years old and older, and people at high risk for serious complications from COVID-19 on Sept. 17.

Booster shots

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for certain populations at least 6 months after their primary series. Those populations include:

• People who are 65 years and older and residents in long-term care settings;

• People aged 50 to 64 years with underlying medical conditions;

• People aged 18 to 49 years with underlying medical conditions may also want to consider getting the booster shot depending on their individual benefits and risks, and;

• People aged 18-64 years, who are at an increased risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission due to their occupational or institutional setting, may want to get the booster shot, based on their individual benefits and risks.

The underlying health conditions include: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung diseases, dementia and neurological conditions, diabetes, Down syndrome, heart conditions, HIV infection, immunocompromised state (a weakened immune system), liver disease, overweight and obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking (current and former), solid organ or blood stem cell transplant recipients, stroke or cerebrovascular disease, substance use disorders.

More information can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html.