COVID-19 numbers rising as GISD returns to school next week

Graham Regional Medical Center posted Monday that eight patients were currently at the hospital with COVID-19, as cases continue to rise in Young County. The county has over 100 active cases, with 106 active as of Monday reported by GRMC.

As of Monday, Aug. 16, GRMC reported a total of 131 active positive COVID-19 cases, with 106 active cases in the county. This was a jump from the numbers reported Friday, Aug. 13, which had a total of 120 active positive COVID-19 cases, with 99 active cases in the county. The hospital stated in July that they are not receiving the vaccination status on each patient’s tests and cannot report on how many of the positive cases were vaccinated.

GRMC began updating the community on their Facebook page again on Monday, July 19, as cases and hospitalizations began to rise after months of low activity. During that time in July, there were a total of 18 active positive COVID-19 cases, with 12 in Young County. With Graham ISD starting school Wednesday, Aug. 25, Young County Local Health Authority, Dr. Pat Martin, stressed getting COVID-19 vaccinations.

“The one thing we know that works the best is getting people vaccinated,” he said. “When someone gets vaccinated it doesn’t just help that person, it helps a lot of other people. So the more people we can get vaccinated the more it will help everyone in school, even the ones who are not old enough to get vaccinated are helped by their parents being vaccinated and by the other adults in the community getting vaccinated.”

The Graham Chamber of Commerce met with healthcare professionals online last Wednesday regarding COVID-19. Dr. Ryan Easterling, of Graham Medical Associates, spoke on what is happening with COVID-19 now and also stressed vaccinations.

“From right now what we know (is) that nationwide the Delta variant of COVID-19 is rampant. It’s more than 80% of current cases based on what we’ve seen recently, so probably 85% of people have the Delta variant,” Dr. Easterling said. “The important thing is that the vaccines seem to be very effective against the Delta variant as well. In general, people who are vaccinated are much, much safer from severe infection, from being put in the hospital, put in the ICU and from dying. And when I say significantly protected, I mean on the order of, you know, 99.999% of people who have been fully vaccinated won’t have to be in an ICU, won’t have to be struggling to survive from COVID.”

For the rest of the story, see the Aug. 18 edition of The Graham Leader.