KANSAS CITY, Mo. — COVID-19 hospitalizations are surging in Missouri and Kansas according to health care officials.
Doctors across Kansas City are comparing notes. At the University of Kansas Health System, doctors say they have more active COVID-19 patients now than when the pandemic started.
"Last week we were in the mid-30s. We went down to the low 20s, but again back up today. We have 30 patients in hospital with active COVID-19," Dr. Dana Hawkinson from the University of Kansas Health System said. "We have another 25 patients who are in that recovery stage afterward."
At KU Health System, seven patients are in intensive care units and six are on ventilators.
The number of younger patients is also increasing according to doctors.
"In one study or one release of numbers, that 20-30 range made up 20 percent of new cases around the nation," Hawkinson said. "So we know younger people are being more infected than they have been in past."
AdventHealth Shawnee Mission is also seeing younger patients, but they are staying for shorter periods of time because of their age and being able to treat it more effectively. Their hospitalizations have remained about the same since July.
Here are the average daily inpatient counts for AdventHealth Shawnee Mission:
- April – 16.65
- May – 10.56
- June – 11.1
- July – 20.14
- August – 20.47
- September – 18.63
- October (to date) – 19.78
"We have been in the range of 15 to probably 25 for the last three months," Dr. Larry Botts, of AdventHealth Shawnee Mission said. "So it's up and down in that range."
As of Tuesday, AdventHealth had 23 COVID-19 patients, six in intensive care units and four on ventilators.
However, Botts doesn't expect hospitalizations to surge at his hospital.
"It's not going to go away. It'll probably continue throughout the winter. I don't think that we'll have a huge increase as long as we are attentive to those infection prevention procedures we're doing," Botts said.
These doctors say people must continue to wear a mask, wash our hands and social distance.
