Health official: 'We have seen an increase in the number of pediatric patients hospitalized'

Novel coronavirus cases and hospitalizations both in Northern Michigan and across the state continue to surge.

Speaking at a joint press conference Tuesday with other Northern Michigan health officials via a Munson Healthcare COVID-19 update, Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer with Munson Healthcare, said the Munson Healthcare system remains at a pandemic response plan "Stage Red," meaning the healthcare system continues to struggle with the overwhelming number of local cases as well as with ongoing staffing issues.

"We are still seeing a high number of cases that are significantly impacting us operationally," Nefcy said. "Our positivity rate is currently at 21%, which is the highest we have seen, certainly higher than the peak we saw during out last surges and it is certainly higher than what we are seeing at the state level.

"We are certainly seeing a surge in the number of cases across our state as well right now."

According to Munson Healthcare's data, in the fall of 2020, the peak positivity rate for Munson's region was at 11.6%, while in the spring of 2021, the peak percentage was at 17.7%. As of Tuesday, that peak percentage moved to 21%.

Additionally, Munson Healthcare's peak number for COVID-19 inpatients in the fall of 2020 was 87, while in the spring of 2021 that peak number was 99.

As of Tuesday, Nefcy said a total of 134 inpatients were hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 symptoms.

Nefcy also addressed concerns she and other healthcare officials have heard from community members regarding breakthrough cases and the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines in that regard.

"Some people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will still get sick because no vaccine is 100% effective and certainly effectiveness of vaccines is significantly impacted on many cases you are seeing of that particular disease you are seeing in your community," Nefcy said. "Additionally, we knew there'd be some diminishing of the efficacy of the vaccines with time, which is why we have a booster shot which is recommended currently."

According to Michigan Department of Health and Human Services data, only 1.5% of people who were fully vaccinated met the criteria of being a breakthrough case.

Also, 87% of those who died with breakthrough cases were 65 years of age and older, while 0.025% of breakthrough cases were hospitalized.

Nefcy also said regarding breakthrough cases, hospitalization rates continue to remain higher in older people with underlying conditions and research does provide evidence COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing the illness.

"We would ask community members to still be very careful, mask in public places and make sure if you're getting together with people over the holidays that they are fully immunized," Nefcy said.

Along with COVID-19, Nefcy noted health officials are also starting to now see some influenza in the state of Michigan, as there are two current outbreaks being monitored with one ongoing at the University of Michigan and another at a longterm care facility in southwestern Lower Michigan.

"We have been lucky here in Northern Michigan to only have a handful of (influenza) cases," Nefcy said. "But we are certainly starting to see some flu activity around the state and across the country and flu again is a vaccine preventable illness. We ask that you get your flu shot, we learned last year that those mitigation measures we supported of distancing and masking against COVID-19 also work for influenza."

Nefcy said as a pediatrician, she is exceedingly grateful the pandemic hasn't impacted as significantly the pediatric population as it has in the adult population.

"That being said, we still do see kids who get very, very sick from COVID-19 and with this latest surge we have seen an increase in the number of pediatric patients hospitalized because of COVID-19," Nefcy said.

She also addressed questions and concerns she's fielded regarding state data on hospitalizations in Northern Michigan.

"I want to make clear we do not have a pediatric ICU at any Munson Healthcare hospital, the closest is the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, and those sickest children would be sent to a pediatric hospital," Nefcy said. "Even though there's a smaller risk to children developing serious illness, we recommend immunizing children because we know they are spreading it to other high-risk people."

Dr. James Robertson, a pediatrician at Kids Creek Children's Clinic in Traverse City, said his office has been overwhelmed with the number of patients seen recently, and not just COVID-19 related.

"There's a number of diseases running through the community right now; hand, foot and mouth, there's RSV which is still around and we're seeing a lot of COVID from our daycare age kids up to school-aged kids," Robertson said. "We're testing about 20-30 patients a day and probably about half of those are coming back positive. We're seeing it in kids as young as two, and the problem is it runs through the whole family."

Robertson said most concerning from a community standpoint is when an infection such as COVID-19 gets into the pediatric population, that is typically what drives it through the community "because those kids are taking it home and then spreading it."

Lisa Peacock, health officer with the Health Department of Northwest Michigan the the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department, said the number of daily COVID-19 cases being reported to both health departments are mostly happening in the younger age group populations.

"Our staffing resources are very stretched while we deal with large numbers of case investigations, testing and vaccinations," Peacock said. "We do know that our most powerful tool right now is vaccination against the Delta variant."

Peacock said the health department has also had strong participation in their age 5-11 year old vaccination clinics, which was recently implemented as the Pfizer vaccine received emergency use authorization from the FDA for use in that age group.

"Our kids clinics are going very well," Peacock said. "I'm very happy to say across all our counties between 10-20 percent of children age 5-11 have already received their first dose and we are adding appointments for that age group to meet the demand.

"We are happy to see that demand and devote resources to that."

Nefcy also said Munson Healthcare implemented a new visitation policy, which went into effect on Nov. 23.

Under the new policy, all inpatients, including COVID-19 inpatients, are allowed one visitor per day in a Munson facility, but are limited to two hours.

The following visitation exceptions remain and the two-hour time limit does not apply to these patient populations:

• Obstetric patients: Allowed one birthing partner or support person and one certified doula. Obstetric inpatients with a COVID-19 positive diagnosis are allowed one visitor, with appropriate personal protective equipment.

• Pediatric patients (21 years of age of younger): Allowed two adult primary caregivers at a time (such as parents, foster parents, or guardians).

• End-of-life patients: Allowed two visitors at a time.

To view the complete updated visitation policy, visit www.munsonhealthcare.org

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Health official: 'We have seen an increase in the number of pediatric patients hospitalized'