COVID-19 hospitalizations are spiking again in Northeast Ohio after weeks of decline

Updated: Wednesday, Nov.10, 2021, 4:00 p.m.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are heading back up in Northeast Ohio.

The surge could be due to pandemic fatigue, said Dr. Heidi Gullett, Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) Medical Director.

“There is a real fatigue with wearing masks, and there is a fatigue with additional vaccinations for people who haven’t yet gotten their first dose,” Dr. Gullett said.

The vast majority of hospitalizations across the country are unvaccinated people, so they are driving the surge in hospitalizations, Gullett said.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why cases and hospitalizations are trending up again after it appeared the wave brought on by the delta variant was slowing down over the past few weeks, said Dr. Robert Wyllie, chief of medical operations at the Cleveland Clinic and the head of northern Ohio's COVID-19 response. 

It's possible people are going inside more now and haven't been wearing masks, Dr. Wyllie said, or it could be due to students back in school. 

Cuyahoga County has about 458 hospitalizations, and Summit County is slightly higher at 557 hospitalizations, Wyllie said. 

"So we’re getting hit, but not quite as much as just south of us, and that’s a pattern that’s been around for a while," he said. 

Higher hospitalizations in Summit County impact Cuyahoga and surrounding counties, as the hospitals continue to load balance, which means moving patients to hospitals with more capacity, Wyllie said. 

“We still have patients coming in with heart attacks and strokes and all the other problems that need medical attention that have to be addressed," Wyllie said. 

The surge in COVID-19 would be made even worse if we see an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations as well, CCBH Health Commissioner Terry Allan said.

Last year, flu cases were extremely low due to masking, social distancing, and travel restrictions, Allan said, but we might not see the same this year.

“Given that many COVID restrictions have been eased and businesses have reduced remote work arrangements, we’re closely monitoring the data as flu activity this season remains very unpredictable,” he said.

Flu activity is currently low, according to Allan.

Gullett and Allan made the comments during a Wednesday press briefing.

Predicting COVID-19 trends beyond 30 days is difficult, but Dr. Wyllie is optimistic this spike won't be as bad as previous increases.

“We have a lot of people who are protected and a lot of people have already gotten COVID, so I don’t think it will be as difficult as it has been, but we still want people protected and we want them to get the vaccine," Wyllie said.

He recommends getting vaccinated, getting the booster shot if you're eligible, and wearing masks to prevent COVID-19 spread. 

Staffing shortages in hospitals across the state and country are, however, one reason this spike is concerning, Wyllie said. 

"The hospitals have beds, but where we’re having a challenge not only in Ohio but around the United States is the number of staff," he said.

Nationwide staffing issues at hospitals are caused by staff getting sick with COVID-19 or just being sick of their jobs.

Burnout after more than a year and a half of pandemic response and increased hospitalizations are causing some workers to leave the health care industry, Wyllie said. 

Wyllie leads Zone 1, one of three zones designated by the Ohio Department of Health for hospital systems to coordinate their COVID-19 response. Zone 1 includes the state's 21 northern Ohio counties, including Cuyahoga and Summit counties.

Zone 1 has about half the hospitalizations in the state, at just over 1,400 of the state's 2,386 patients, according to data provided by Wyllie.