Local hospital surges with COVID patients, asks Augusta community for patience

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – COVID-19 seeing a surge in the CSRA this week with University Hospital reporting Thursday morning a total of 118 COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. 

According to hospital leadership this number sets another new record since the beginning of the pandemic.  Despite discharging 10 patients on Wednesday, University Hospital added a total of 18 COVID patients between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The majority of these patients are being treated at University Hospital’s Summerville Campus. 

A spokesperson for UH tells NewsChannel 6, “This surge has required us to reopen two and possibly three negative air pressure cohort units in the Main Hospital, which we thankfully are equipped to quickly and safely do.”   

Augusta University currently has 68 patients in house being treated for COVID 19 complications, and it received over 900 vaccines on Thursday making it one of the first hospitals in Georgia to receive them.  A Doctor’s Hospital spokesperson says they have seen a steady increase each day through the month of December. 

Currently Doctor’s has 42 COVID patients in house where there were 19 in house patients on December 1^st. 

A spokesperson for Doctor’s Hospital Augusta says, they are also waiting on its shipment of vaccines.

University Hospital hospital leadership is encouraging patience among residents before returning to a more normal “pre-COVID” way of life saying, “We realize that people are excited and breathing a sigh of relief because the vaccine is being distributed, but a tremendous amount of damage can be done before we have a widespread vaccination.  A side effect of modernization is that we aren’t the most patient generation, but we implore upon people to wait just a little longer before returning to our pre-COVID way of life.”

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