The Carroll City Council recently received an update from St. Anthony Regional Hospital President and CEO, Ed Smith, and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kyle Ulveling. Smith’s first order of business was to commend the area residents.
Ulveling says the active cases when they last gave an update to the council were in the 500s. Carroll County then peaked at between 700 and 730 in the week of Nov. 9. The COVID-19 unit at St. Anthony was expanded three times during that timeframe to accommodate the positive patients. But with the decrease in positive cases, they have seen a concurrent decrease in in-patients at the hospital. Ulveling says the treatment methods have changed since they last spoke to the council as well.
The first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Carroll County, at St. Anthony Regional Hospital on Tuesday. Staff vaccinations began that very afternoon. Ulveling says he was impressed with the staff response.
The Pfizer vaccine will be solely directed for long-term care residents and staff. Immunizations of that vaccine are expected to begin on Monday, Dec. 28. As soon as the healthcare vaccinations are completed, the high-risk public will be immunized. This includes the very elderly and those with high-risk contributing factors. Ulveling explains one potential side effect.
Smith says in addition to the elderly and those with underlying conditions, phase II should include essential workers with an anticipated inoculation start date in the latter part of January. They believe the end of February or beginning of March will see the vaccine become available to the general public. The only requirement regarding COVID-19 infections and the vaccine is that the person receiving it cannot have an active case at the time they are getting immunized.
