Greene County is going to see a minor setback in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as Cox South is preparing to reopen their COVID-19 dedicated ICU.
CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards broke the news on Twitter.
“CoxHealth Covid inpatient census 26, 8 in ICU,” Edwards wrote. “We are readying to reopen our dedicated Covid ICU as an important precaution to create capacity.”
CoxHealth spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell said that the hospital’s infectious disease expert Dr. Robin Trotman said that more patients are waiting longer to come in for care with COVID-19, leading to more severe cases and worse outcomes.
Edwards said that residents need to remember the variants are more dangerous than the original strains.
“A reminder, variants are thought to both 60% more infectious and 60% higher mortality,” Edwards said.
Edwards, CoxHealth, and the Springfield-Greene County Health Department all issued statements on social media about the importance of vaccinations to stop the spread of the disease.