With hospitals pushed to the brink with COVID-19 patients, health care providers are making an urgent plea for unvaccinated people to get the vaccine.
Hospitals have been busy during past COVID-19 surges, but what makes this time different is the omicron variant.
Omicron’s fast spread has resulted in large surge of people in the hospital.
There was a long line at a health clinic in Renton, but most were here to be tested. Some, however, were finally getting the vaccine.
A handful of people, many of them having delayed getting the COVID-19 vaccine, finally relented, including an osteopathic physician-in-training who had to get a third shot for school.
“I just felt like the first two were pretty protective,” said Amber Jacobson. “And I was just kind of a little bit neutral about getting the third shot. But if someone’s going to make me do it, I’ll just do it.”
“Because it’s going worse right now, and COVID is everywhere,” said Seror Naoomi of Seattle, who had a special reason to get the vaccine now.
“We’re trying to have a baby,” said Naoomi. “And the doctor, he (told) me to take the vaccine for the safety now for the baby, too.”
The fast-spreading omicron variant is infecting thousands of people in King County each week. While it is not as lethal as the once-dominant delta variant, it is still flooding hospitals with cases.
“We have currently 190 hospitalized patients with COVID-19,” said Dr. Tim Dellit. “And we’ve been at that level over the past week.”
The chief medical officer for UW Medicine says that is unprecedented. Worse yet, more than 600 staff members are sick or quarantined because of omicron.
“Our previous high was 124 patients,” said Dellit. “Combined with the impact on our staff, (it) has really created significant challenges for our hospital systems to simply provide ongoing care.
“We really need the help of the community to get this pandemic under control.”
“There’s a lot of COVID spreading everywhere,” said 11-year-old Abdul Haynzea, who was receiving his first COVID shot.
He has this message for the still-reluctant.
“Just breathe and focus,” advises Abdul. “Don’t, don’t be afraid.”
Dellit says with so many people in the hospital, non-emergency services are being canceled. That includes cancer surgeries, hip and knee replacements.
That will continue to be the case until this latest, and hopefully last, surge ends.
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