Over the past two years, our community has come together to support our health care providers and each other during the unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we head into the Christmas week, we understand that people want to move on from the pandemic and return to normal life.
Unfortunately, the health care community cannot move on. Since the Thanksgiving holiday, Indiana, and Lake County in particular, have experienced a worrisome surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. In Lake County, the positivity rate has reached 15%, even higher than Indiana as a whole, and higher than that of surrounding states. Indiana hospitals had 2,000 COVID patients admitted as of December 13, an 82% increase over the prior three weeks, according to the Indiana State Health Department. And as of December 2021, the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 Hoosiers and nearly 700 of our fellow Lake County community members.
Our region’s hospitals are struggling to both care for all of these new COVID-19 patients and to provide needed care for other patients. The increasing numbers of COVID patients are impacting the availability of elective services. Emergency rooms across Northwest Indiana are overcrowded. And health care workers – our friends, relatives and neighbors who have dedicated their lives and careers to helping others – are overworked and exhausted. At Methodist, our COVID-19 cases have surged to 45-60 cases on an average day, up from single digits early in the fall. The vast majority of our COVID patients are unvaccinated.
The way out of the pandemic is clear: vaccination. It is a documented fact that the vaccines are safe and are extremely effective in preventing severe disease and death. So it is alarming that only 50.6% of Indiana residents are fully vaccinated – the 11th lowest rate in the U.S. According to the Indiana Hospital Association, 95% of Hoosiers hospitalized for COVID in November 2021 were unvaccinated.
Methodist Hospitals has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. I am proud of our entire organization: doctors, nurses and staff, who have courageously served the community through two very difficult years. We owe them our gratitude and our support.
This Christmas, we ask you to come together once again for the greater good and support our health care heroes. You can support them by practicing safe behaviors during your holiday gatherings – masking, hand washing and social distancing. You can support them by considering a career in health care – hospital staffing needs are real and growing. And you can support them by giving the most important gift you can give to yourself, your family and your community. Get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and encourage those you love to do the same. Visit www.Methodisthospitals.org for a list of convenient locations to get vaccinated.
