Erie County's latest COVID-19 surge nears end; causing fewer hospitalizations, deaths
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Erie County has gone through three COVID-19 surges since the pandemic started in March 2020.
The first two each killed hundreds of county residents and filled local hospitals with critically ill patients. But the latest surge, which started in late April and now appears to be winding down, has been different.
Thousands of county residents have contracted COVID-19 during this surge and many of them have suffered mild illness, even if they have been fully vaccinated. But relatively few of them have been hospitalized and only a handful of them have died.
"What we are seeing here fits with what we know about the omicron variant," said Charlotte Berringer, R.N., director of community health for the Erie County Department of Health. "No matter which (omicron subvariant) we are talking about, it tends to be an upper respiratory infection and it is not affecting a person's lungs like the earlier versions of COVID did."
More: Erie physicians see more COVID-19 patients, but they are not as sick
Pennsylvania Department of Health data for the county shows that this latest surge is sending fewer people to the hospital. Here is a look at the highest 14-day moving average for daily COVID-19 hospitalizations among county residents during each surge:
Initial surge (October 2020 to February 2021) — 122.6 patients on Dec. 18, 2020.
Delta/omicron surge (August 2021 to February) — 132.3 patients on Jan. 22.
Latest surge (Late April to present) — 33 patients on May 29.
More: Decline in cases lowers Erie County's COVID-19 Community Level to medium
Deaths caused by COVID-19 have also been much lower during this latest surge. Here is a look at the cumulative monthly deaths during each surge:
Initial surge (November 2020 to February 2021) — 391 deaths.
Delta/omicron surge (September 2021 to February) — 296 deaths.
Latest surge (May to present) — 13 deaths.
"The majority of hospitalized patients in those early surges who died had severe respiratory failure. It was unique, unmistakable," said Peter Laucks, D.O., a Saint Vincent Hospital pulmonologist. "In the last six months, the only people we have seen at Saint Vincent who fit that description were two solid-organ transplant recipients who took immune-suppressing medications."
Both Berringer and Laucks cautioned that although the omicron subvariants seem to cause less severe illness than previous COVID-19 variants, people are still getting hospitalized.
It is also not known if these subvariants can lead to long COVID, a condition in which the person suffers symptoms for many weeks or months after their initial infection.
"I still recommend wearing a face mask, especially indoors," Lauks said. "And it remains important to get fully vaccinated and boosted. They remain your best protection against severe illness."
Erie County's COVID-19 cases fall for third straight week
Erie County's weekly number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases declined again last week as the county exits this latest surge.
The state health department reported 272 cases among county residents from June 8-14, a 27% decrease from the previous week. It's the third straight week the number has declined.
The latest test results from samples taken from the Erie Wastewater Treatment Plant also show a decline in COVID-19 virus levels. They are back to a level seen just before the latest surge.
COVID-19 hospitalizations of county residents also dropped last week, from a daily average of 29.9 to 28.4. That number has remained relatively stable for almost a month, according to state health department data.
Hospital officials have said a majority of COVID-positive patients in recent weeks were admitted for other reasons. They tested positive for COVID-19 after displaying mild symptoms or took a required test to be transferred to a nursing home.
As a result, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention changed the Erie County's COVID-19 Community Level on Thursday evening from medium to low. It reported the county had 113.45 cases and 8.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents, and 4.5% of its hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients.
Crawford County saw its level rise from low to medium, based on it having 151.25 cases and 15.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents. It's percentage of hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients was 4.3%.
Here is a look at the county's other COVID-19 measurements between June 1-7 and June 8-14, according to the state health department:
The rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents dropped from 138.3 to 100.8.
The PCR test positivity rate declined from 18.8% to 15.9%.
The average daily number of COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators dropped from 1.3 to 0.7.
The percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-19 symptoms declined from 0.9% to 0.6%.
Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County's latest COVID-19 surge nears end
