St. Lawrence County doctor fears a new COVID-19 spike at the holidays – North Country Public Radio

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Nov 14, 2021

The number of new COVID-19 cases across the North Country has remained stubbornly high this fall. Public health officials fear the holidays will trigger another surge.

St. Lawrence County, like others in the region, has a dangerous combination a high positive test rate and a vaccination rate below the state average.

Dr. Andrew Williams is the president of the St. Lawrence County Board of Health. He told David Sommerstein public health leaders have spent a year and a half reinforcing the regions hospital system, but its showing strain.Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Dr. Andrew Williams on concerns over stubbornly high COVID-19 cases

DR. ANDREW WILLIAMS: We're talking about taking care of patients both with COVID, but also patients who have non-COVID-related reasons to be hospitalized. However, because the number of cases has stayed high for so long, it's really put a strain and stress on our local hospital systems.

DAVID SOMMERSTEIN: So are we seeing patients being turned away or ambulances having to drive longer distances to other hospitals?

WILLIAMS: At this point, we never turn away patients who arrive at the emergency room. But one of the challenges for us is to have a bed available for them within the hospital. For patients who require a higher level of care and a transfer to one of the larger regional hospitals, because those hospitals are so full, oftentimes there's a delay in the transfer, or difficulty getting them there. Partly also, our transportation system is also under significant stress because of the volumes.

SOMMERSTEIN: And worker shortages in all of those categories is exacerbating all of this.

WILLIAMS:I think, as with other industries, in the hospital systems, we're definitely noticing the impact of staffing shortages, on how we're able to take care of our patients and deliver care.

SOMMERSTEIN: What can the county do, to try to, as we said at the very beginning of the pandemic, flatten the curve, or bend the curve back down and lower cases?

WILLIAMS: It's interesting, even as the pandemic goes on, we still fall back on what we call the 'pillars of community response'. So it's really six things. It used to be five pillars, but now we've added vaccination.

The Six Pillars of community response to help flatten the curve are vaccination; wearing masks when people are indoors; physical distancing; handwashing; staying home when sick; and staying local. So, those strategies really haven't changed.

We do continue to work on isolation and quarantine on a county health department level so that we can identify cases and try and reduce the spread in the community by isolating people who have COVID, and then also quarantine people who have a high-risk exposure.

SOMMERSTEIN:And then there's that sixth one that you mentioned, which is getting more people vaccinated, which is still a really big issue. St. Lawrence County has a lower vaccination rate than other places.

WILLIAMS: If you look at St. Lawrence County, we, despite the efforts of the medical community and the public health community, right now, fully vaccinated residents of St. Lawrence County are at 55%. New York State has an overall average of 67% fully vaccinated. And there are a number of counties where there's more than 75% of the population that's vaccinated. So we're unfortunately a relatively low vaccination community.

What we find in particular is that the age demographic of our unvaccinated population tends to be our younger residents, and in particular tends to be people who are in the workforce, who might be parents of young children who are attending school or daycare.

SOMMERSTEIN: You come into contact with all kinds of people as your patients. How do you talk with people who may be wary of getting vaccinated? How do you approach them?

WILLIAMS:It's a great question. Anytime somebody is unvaccinated and is interested in discussing vaccination, I talk about the risks and benefits of vaccination, just like any other therapy or intervention I might be recommending.

I really point out that we've vaccinated millions of people in this country. There's lots of research that went into vaccine development. There's really now an excellent track record of safety for the vaccinations. And we also know that the vaccines remain very effective at keeping people from becoming severely ill requiring hospitalization or dying.

I also explained to them that even though they may have some concerns about vaccination, the greatest risk is getting the COVID-19 infection, and that if you compare the risk of the infection to the risk, or perceived risk, of vaccination, vaccination is a far better choice.

SOMMERSTEIN:What worries you most right now,

WILLIAMS: My concern is that we have this steady high rate of cases that we've seen now for several months and that we're about to go into the winter season. We're about to go into the holiday season where many of our families get together. And I just really worry that we're not going to see a decrease in cases, and that, in fact, we may end up seeing another surge on top of the current surge.

When I talk to patients about the importance of vaccination, I emphasize that it's important and safe and effective for them as an individual, but that the benefit of vaccination really does go beyond protecting them as an individual. It's the best way to protect our families and our community.

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St. Lawrence County doctor fears a new COVID-19 spike at the holidays - North Country Public Radio