RMC sees slight uptick in COVID cases

Jun. 1—COVID-19 cases across the state and in Calhoun County have increased with the start of summer travel season.

There are three COVID hospitalizations between the RMC and Stringfellow campuses, Dr. Raul Magadia, infectious disease specialist and director of the pandemic unit at Regional Medical Center, said Tuesday.

Magadia said the COVID ward at RMC was shut down March 17 but had to be reopened due to new cases that require hospitalization.

"For about seven weeks, the COVID ward was shut down," Magadia said. "We reopened about three weeks ago, and since then, we've had seven patients who have been admitted. Five of them have been discharged.

"We currently have two patients in-house; one is an ICU level kind of patient, one is a regular medical COVID patient," he said.

There is one COVID patient at Stringfellow in the ICU, Magadia said.

"We know the predominant variant is omicron; we just don't know what the subvariant is, because we don't test for them in the hospital," he said.

Magadia said the number of positive cases at RMC using the PCR test — polymerase chain reaction test — have doubled over the last three weeks.

For the week ending May 14, RMC tested 38 people and only one test came back positive. For the week ending May 21, a total of 44 tests were given and two came back positive.

Last week, RMC tested 44 people and four tests came back positive.

Magdia said that there is some good news about Calhoun County because the Alabama Department of Public Health lowered the community transmission rate to low from medium.

"We're seeing an uptick of patients getting admitted but I think overall there's still very little in the community, but we still recommend people who have not been vaccinated yet, or those eligible for the booster to get their booster shots," Magadia said.

Magadia urges common sense — especially for people with suppressed immune systems — now that the unofficial start of summer has begun that will include traveling, indoor settings and gatherings.

"I think we have a good handle on what the virus is able to do, we could predict it, but the hard thing to predict is human behavior, " he said.

Magadia preaches "WWWV."

"Wash your hands, wear your mask, watch your distance and vaccinate," he said.

As COVID trends upward the ADPH urges people to get vaccinated. Nearly 3,000 people have died from the disease this year, according to a press release from the ADPH.

"Plenty of COVID-19 vaccines are available, and I encourage people to make sure you're protected. We are not an overly vaccinated state, and immunity wanes over time, especially for certain groups of people," State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said last week,

According to the ADPH everyone in the United States age 5 years and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

To find a COVID-19 vaccine clinic near you, text your zip code to 438829 or visit www.vaccines.gov.

All county health departments offer COVID-19 vaccines at no charge for ages 5 and older. General COVID-19 questions may be answered by calling 1-800-270-7268 or e-mailing covid19info@adph.state.al.us. Telephone calls are answered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Interpreters are available.

Staff writer Bill Wilson: 256-235-3562. On Twitter @bwilson_star.