For the second week in a row, MidMichigan Health has told the state that every bed in its Alma hospital is full.
According to information the network provided the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, a quarter of the facility’s 97 beds are occupied by people receiving care for COVID-19. Five of those 26 people are in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
That means approximately one in four beds at the Alma hospital is currently filled with a COVID-19 patient.
That is an increase of nine beds filled with COVID-19 patients since last Monday, when the network reported that 15 of the hospital’s beds were filled with patients receiving care for COVID-19.
It is not known how much turnover there was in COVID patients. Previously, health officials said that the average COVID-19 stay requires approximately half a week.
Gratiot County currently has four nursing homes where residents have contracted COVID-19.
In the week preceding last Thursday, nine new cases were reported among residents of Masonic Health Care Center, four at Rosewood 1, two at Schnepp Senior Care and Rehab Center and one at Michigan Masonic Home.
Gratiot County has also seen a spike in COVID-19 deaths in the last month.
On Oct. 22, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported that 121 county residents had died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. On Monday, that number was 133, a 9.9 percent increase.
It is unknown how many of those new deaths involve nursing home residents. Mid-Michigan District Health Department, which serves Gratiot County, stopped releasing information about COVID-19 deaths a year ago.
What is known is that age and underlying health conditions continue to be the single most important influence in negative outcomes from the disease. Elderly people with underlying health conditions and who are vaccinated are more likely to die from COVID-19 than healthy unvaccinated people under the age of 50.
One of the two other hospitals in the area was more than half full on Monday.
Of the 118 beds at McLaren-Central Michigan, 53 percent were full. Nine of those were receiving care for COVID-19, including three in the intensive care unit.
At MidMichigan Health-Clare, 35 percent of the 48 beds were filled. Ten percent of the hospital’s beds were filled with COVID-19 patients; or five beds. None were receiving intensive care.
Neither county has had any recent nursing home cases.
Last week, a health official with the state healthcare coalition that services Isabella and Clare counties warned that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients were placing stress on local and regional healthcare systems.
