MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) -It’s been a long time coming but finally, Midland Memorial Hospital is celebrating two consecutive days with zero active covid patients in their ICU’s since March of 2020.
Val Sparks, Midland Memorial Hospital Infection Preventionist, says their staff has shown resilience the last two years.
“We have felt a shift, even me personally as the Infection Preventionist because I went from working part-time to working full-time plus 24-hour call for the last two years,” Sparks said. ” Overall, our staff has been very resilient.”
Sparks says the milestone comes as a credit to vaccinations, boosters, and herd immunity for the decline in covid cases.
Medical Center Hospital which is not far behind is working to reach the same milestone. Right now, it is dealing with four active covid cases.
Russell Tippin, MCH CEO, says all the cases are from surrounding communities.
“Those are from outside Ector County,” Tippin said. ” So, we only have one from Ector County. The rest are from surrounding communities that we’re just too sick for smaller hospitals to handle.”
Tippin says those cases could be likely fueled by the new subvariant of omicron, ‘BA.2.’ According to the CDC, it’s slowly spreading and responsible for more than 35% of new coronavirus infections.
“The fact is, it’s still out there,” Tippin said. ” You still need to be careful and definitely if you’re not feeling well please come see us and let us take care of you and let us jumpstart on it. It just makes your recovery time shorter.”
Medical officials also encourage people to continue to practice good hand-washing hygiene.
Both hospitals say since cases have had a major decline for now visitations and other restrictions have been lifted which you can find on each of their websites.
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