Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health provided a COVID-19 update Wednesday. Systemwide, it’s caring for 112 COVID-19 patients; 92 are unvaccinated, 20 vaccinated. Thirty-one of the total COVID hospitalizations are in the Intensive Care Unit. Of those, 25 are unvaccinated and six are vaccinated. Twenty of those ICU patients are on ventilators with 16 unvaccinated and four vaccinated.
“You might look at this and say, ‘Wow, we have a lot of vaccinated patients in the hospital.’”
Dr. Liam Sullivan is adult infectious disease physician at Spectrum Health. He explains there are various reasons for this, but the primary reason is that not everyone has an appropriate response to the vaccines.
“We have a huge population of people that are immunocompromised. Whether it be from an underlying disease condition or medications that they take for other conditions.”
They are at greatest risk. Dr. Sullivan also points out that of the 20 vaccinated hospitalized patients a number of those are labelled as “incidental discoveries.” Patients admitted for other reasons. Asymptomatic but testing positive for COVID.
Spectrum Health also reports that since vaccines have been available, there have 212 in-patient COVID-19 deaths. Over 90-percent of those are unvaccinated patients.