Prisma Health hospitalizing more young COVID-19 patients as SC cases spike
A higher number of young adults infected with COVID-19 are being admitted to one of the state’s largest hospital systems as the number of positive cases in the Palmetto State continue to surge.
As of Tuesday night, Prisma Health said on Wednesday it had 204 COVID-19 patients across its hospitals in the Midlands and the Upstate. The hospital system only had 65 confirmed COVID-19 patients in late May.
Of those hospitalized, 11.2% were 20 to 39 years old, compared with 4.1% on May 28.
“Although that’s a smaller number overall, certainly that rate of increase and that doubling is concerning to us as a health care (system),” said Dr. Scott Sasser, the incident commander for Prisma Health’s COVID-19 response.
Meanwhile, Prisma is seeing a decrease in the percentage of seniors making up their hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
At Prisma, the percentage of hospitalized patients 60 and older has dropped from 68.2% to 62.1% from May 28 to June 30, Sasser said
At the same time as the spike in hospitalizations among young adults, more younger people also are testing positive.
This week, the state’s health department reported a 966% increase in people ages 11 to 20 and 413% increase in people ages 21 to 30 testing positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks.
Through Prisma’s testing program, Sasser said that in March and April 23.6% of people ages 20 to 39 tested positive for the virus.
In May through late June, Sasser said that 35.7% of the same age range tested positive.
“Be the generation that shows they can wear masks and that it is cool to do,” the state health department’s physician Dr. Brannon Traxler, told House lawmakers on Wednesday.
Compare those numbers with older adults.
In the same time period — March and April — 40.6% of people age 60 and older tested positive.
Since, the percentage of seniors testing positive in May through June at Prisma has dropped to 20.9%, Sasser said.
“I think we are doing what we can to protect the older more vulnerable population as well, and we’re seeing an increase in testing,” Sasser said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 37,800 South Carolinians had tested positive for the virus since March.
Nearly 760 people have so far died.
As more South Carolinians test positive for COVID-19, Sasser asked those who have recovered from the virus to donate plasma to help people who are currently sick.
“We will all need more convalescent plasma with the higher volume of patients we’re seeing,” Sasser said.
Sasser said Prisma’s hospital occupancy has increased across the state now that hospitals are performing elective and non-emergent procedures and surgeries.
“We are currently close to being back to pre-COVID levels and taking care patients with our elective surgeries and ambulatory processes and procedures,” Sasser said.
He added there is a surge plan in place that can be activated to increase capacity if needed.
“Right now, we have the capacity,” Sasser said. “We’re a large health care system, we have the capacity and capability to take care of patients.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 12:02 PM.
