WASHINGTON — It’s Friday, November 27, and health experts are concerned about the rising number of coronavirus hospitalizations, and how Thanksgiving gatherings will impact the health workers and facilities in time for the December holidays.
According to state tracking data from Maryland and Virginia, more than 3,000 people are hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms as of Friday. Experts worry that number could go up.
“The doctors will tell you that COVID appears as a manifest as real sickness about three weeks after exposure and then just a week or two after that, people who are really ill end up in the hospital," Bob Atlas, the president and CEO of Maryland Hospital Association, told WUSA9. "So, you count those days and you've put it right around Christmas when we could have a post-Thanksgiving burden in our hospitals."
On Friday, Maryland reported 1,435 people hospitalized with the virus.
Julian Walker, the vice president of communications for the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, said hospitals are facing a significant challenge as the weather gets colder and families begin to gather for holidays.
“This is the period of time when the spread can intensify both because of the colder weather and winter season, as well as the holidays and family gatherings," Walker said. "If people aren't taking it seriously, that potentially increases the risk of transmission to a larger number of people at a period of time when the number of confirmed cases is going up and hitting record numbers, so that's a concern," she said.
Meanwhile, Montgomery County's top health officer, Dr. Travis Gayles, said conversations the county is having reflect the seriousness of the direction the pandemic is heading in.
“We've had to revisit conversations we had in the spring, for example, do we have adequate morgue space. In the spring, we had to order refrigerated trucks to be able to provide additional support to our hospitals,” Gayles said.
In case you’re in a hurry and just looking for the numbers, here’s how things look today:
- DC – D.C. reported 201 new cases of coronavirus on Friday. It's the first time The District has reported more than 200 cases back-to-back since May.
- Maryland – On Friday, Maryland reported 2,378 new cases of coronavirus. The state has now been averaging more than 2,000 cases a day for nine consecutive days
- Virginia – Virginia reported 1,544 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, ending a seven-day streak of more than 2,000 cases reported. Friday also saw a lower case average, at 2,445 cases, snapping a streak of 11 consecutive record-high days.