Berrien County’s top health care leaders provided a detailed update again today on the current status of the pandemic and vaccination efforts that continue to gain momentum as the numbers continue heading in the right direction on both sides of the scale with COVID cases continue to decline while vaccination rates climb.
Berrien County Health Officer Nicki Britten and Spectrum Health Lakeland Hospital President Dr. Loren Hamel provided a video update through the Berrien County Health Department’s website and Britten used the opportunity to reinforce the county’s pandemic response goals and how they play into the multi-pronged strategy for getting key populations vaccinated.
Britten explained, “It’s always good to root ourselves in the goals so that we understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, and we have three main goals:
- We want to prevent overwhelming the health system…and we’re doing good in that regard right now…
- We want to decrease the number of deaths and severe outcomes for people…so for those most at-risk of severe outcomes, we want to make sure are vaccinated and protected…
- We want to maintain certain essential critical infrastructure and societal services…
Those are our main goals and to that end we have a multi-pronged approach in how we’re trying to do this and between Spectrum Health Lakeland and the Health Department, we have a portfolio of different ways in which we’re doing vaccinations.”
Britten detailed strategies that include:
- Mass vaccination clinics…
- Drive-through clinics…
- Pop-up Clinics targeted to very vulnerable populations…
- On-Site vaccinations at specific sites and for some critical homebound situations…
She described each, saying, “We’re doing some large scale, mass vaccination clinics wherein we’re doing 1,000+ vaccinations per day. The Health Department is also doing some drive-through sites as well, so that people have an opportunity where they can get the vaccine without getting out of their car, and that has allowed us to be in a variety of places throughout the county. We also have some pop-up clinics which are really intended to help get at a very vulnerable population that might face barriers to gaining access to a mass clinic strategy, because that doesn’t always work to get an entire population, so we’ve done pop-up clinics and have more planned at such places as senior centers, community locations, churches, and they’re usually a bit smaller in scale, and are targeted with their outreach and an important piece of the strategy. We’re also doing some on-site vaccinations in places such as nursing homes, adult foster care centers, and for homebound individuals where we’re going physically to where the people live to make sure that we’re getting to the most vulnerable in terms of disease and risk, but also in terms of access.”
Essentially, Britten says that multi-faceted approach is a key, suggesting, “We need to have this broad strategy to fit our community, we can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach for vaccination, everybody’s got different entry points and different barriers and we’re really working to make sure we have a robust complement of strategies.” Dr. Hamel immediately provided support for the work of the Health Department saying, “I’ve heard so many good things about the drive-up clinics, it has been a really great program.”
The two launched the broadcast by taking another snapshot look at the current data, and both have been impressed by the work of the community to stem the tide in recent weeks. Britten began by saying, “I’m pleased to report that we’re continuing to see encouraging numbers out of the COVID-19 data, in instances of new cases and percent positivity. As we’ve said over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been flat, somewhat declining, and we’ve seen that slight decline continue this week, so we’re between 25 and 30 new cases per day on average, which is a remarkable improvement compared to where we have been, and a very manageable place for us to be right now.”
Britten says that one of the Health Department’s goals with COVID-19 transmission is to make sure that we don’t ever get to a situation where the healthcare system is overwhelmed and unable to provide high-quality health care for all health care needs, COVID and non-COVID, and says, “We’re in great shape right now, with the percent positivity at about 7-percent, again a marked improvement, and I know the numbers in the hospital are lower or flat at a more comfortable level,” adding, “Of course we don’t want anyone hospitalized from this, but it’s definitely at a manageable level, so from the data standpoint, all of that is doing really good right now.”
Britten’s cynical side showed up briefly when she cautioned, “Some of this might just be part of my personality, but when things are going really good, that’s when I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop, so I don’t want us to be in a situation where we get too comfortable and we stop doing the things that matter the most, especially when you have some variants. We heard earlier this week that the Cass-Van Buren Health Department have identified this new case variant, and it’s been in Washtenaw County, and has been seen in states all over the country, and we have every reason to believe that it is probably here in Berrien County, we just haven’t identified it yet, through the special testing that will identify that strain.” She warned, “The thing that is just important to keep in mind, and why we can’t let our guard down, is that strain of the virus is just more infectious. It’s more likely to spread between people than what we were seeing throughout much of last year. So, while our numbers look good, and that is a testament to what our community has been doing in terms of social distancing, masking, and avoiding large crowds and good hand hygiene, all of those great things, we have to continue to be vigilant, especially as these variants are really changing the landscape.”
Dr. Hamel then shared his metrics, reporting, “Our volumes are down in the 20’s (for patient counts) sometimes a little below that, and that is so much better than when we were up around 80. We’re really appreciative of that.”
The hospital leader says because of that, there’s a bit of reward, noting, “Given those lower volumes, we’ve been able to liberalize some of our visitation policies. That’s been so helpful. We still are not allowing family members into COVID units, because of the risk to the family members, and we try to make sure they are video-connected, but we’re allowing a few visitors in far more places than we were able to, but a few places still won’t like in surgery, and outpatient settings, but in many of the inpatient settings we’re allowing a few visitors.”
Dr. Hamel also issued his cautionary tale, saying, “We have seen the positivity rate go down, and that is so reassuring, but I just want to remind folks that we still are caring for really sick people, and not all of the really sick people are just the elderly. We have had folks in their 30s and 40s on prolonged ventilator assistance. You must continue to be diligent, we still don’t want you in the hospital, we don’t want you to get sick. That’s why being so careful, and why electing to get a vaccine when you are able is so important.”
Asked about ongoing efforts to keep tabs on transmission in the county, Britten was asked if the Health Department was continuing key things like contact tracing and case investigations, and responded, “Absolutely! In 2020 so much of what we talked about was case investigation and contact tracing. Those remain really, really important tools and we have dedicated human resources to doing that task every day of the week. That still remains a really important tool to stamping out lines of transmission and making sure people know when they have been exposed so that they don’t continue to expose others if they are, indeed, infected. We still have team members dedicated to that task.”
Despite that work, Britten says, “Isolation and quarantine remain useful tools. Here we are 11 months into this pandemic, and it can be real annoying, but if you need to be quarantined it is still for the benefit of the public’s health and especially in light of the potential for seeing higher transmission with the variant strains, if and when that is happening here. Quarantine and isolation still are our quickest tool. That is what allows us to be most agile in shutting down transmission, because, as I’ve said before, the vaccine is a long-term investment and it’s really good that we’re investing in that right now as it will pay dividends months from now, but isolation and quarantine are other tools in addition to the social distancing, masking, washing hands that still remain very important.”
As the vaccination process continues, those in search of a shot are being reminded to remain patient and also encouraged to sign up either with the Berrien County Health Department or Spectrum Health Lakeland’s MyChart site, with reminders too that Meijer Pharmacies are now signing appointments and to a lesser extent in our area Walgreens and some smaller in-store pharmacies as the gain additional vaccine supplies from the state and federal governments.
Berrien County has now administered more than 20,000 first and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and continue to schedule clinics as supplies are made available locally.
