Local doctor sheds light on number of hospital patients with COVID

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WPMI) — BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WPMI) - Local hospitals are now experiencing an alarming upward trend in Covid related hospitalizations, that's according to the Alabama Hospital Association. In Fairhope the numbers at Thomas Hospital seem to back that up. NBC 15 talked with a local doctor who brought the staggering numbers to light.

Retired Fairhope doctor Margaret Meyers volunteers at Thomas Hospital. Meyers knew she'd make some waves by releasing the numbers but her real message is for all of us to stop and pay attention.

Her Facebook post has been shared more than 60 times and counting. In the post Dr. Meyers shared Wednesday's "daily report," that area doctors get from Thomas Hospital. 56 Covid patients, reads the post, she adds - "No beds available at this time until patients are discharged or die."

"People are not taking this seriously because they are removed from it. Many of them, it hasn’t touched them yet but I've had two friends die from Covid one before vaccination was available," said Dr. Meyers.

The policy at Thomas Hospital is to not release the numbers to the public but hospital officials did talk to NBC 15 today. The bottom line is, this is a serious surge.

"The patients seem to be staying a little bit longer, the length of stay is longer with this new strain that we're seeing with these new variants. We continue to make accommodations to care for patients. I don’t think there's any beds available in our entire region may be in the Southeast," said Thomas Hospital President and CEO Ormand Thompson.

"The Delta variant is so contagious and so dangerous that we are seeing numbers in the hospital that even surpass the initial Covid," said Meyers.

Hospital officials say the vast majority of new Covid cases are with unvaccinated patients. "I think health care in general felt that once the vaccine was out we would see some relief from Covid 19. It’s an insidious virus and you would hate to have anybody in your family or friends have a serious infection like this," said Thompson.

The one thing everyone agrees on is the push to get more people vaccinated. Right now 70% of Alabamians remain unvaccinated.