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YNHHS top doc: “A testament to the efficacy of vaccines.”
The number of Covid-19-positive in-patients has plummeted across the Yale New Haven Health System as more and more of the state’s population gets vaccinated.
YNHHS CEO Marna Borgstrom and Chief Clinical Officer Thomas Balcezak celebrated that steep slope of declining hospitalizations Tuesday afternoon during the regional hospital system’s latest virtual press conference, held online on Zoom and Facebook Live. YNHH includes five hospitals across Connecticut and Rhode Island, including New Haven’s York Street and Saint Raphael’s campuses.
Borgstrom and Balcezak said that there are currently only 33 Covid-positive in-patients in YNHHS hospital beds systemwide, including 19 in New Haven.
That’s down from 64 in-patients systemwide and 43 in New Haven on May 17, and 194 systemwide and 96 in New Haven on April 23.
“It is really a remarkable turn of events,” Borgstrom said Tuesday. “We still have to be very respectful of this virus. I think people who say it’s over are probably counting it out too early. But, we celebrate where and when we can, and we are delighted to be able to share these numbers with you.”
This decline in hospitalization is a “great sign that we are finally emerging from what has been a very long year and a couple months,” added Balcezak.
Borgstrom and Balcezak were unequivocal when asked what has precipitated this drop in Covid-related hospitalizations in recent weeks and months.
“This downward trend in hospitalizations is absolutely a testament to the efficacy of the vaccines,” Balcezak said.
He said YNHHS has delivered more than 425,000 vaccine doses systemwide so far.
The problem that the hospital system is encountering now, Balcezak said, is too many doses and appointments available, and not enough willing arms.
He said that YNHHS’s mass vaccination sites — like the one at the Floyd Little Athletic Center at Hillhouse High School — are now administering only second doses. The federally approved Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines require two doses separated by roughly three and four weeks, respectively; the only other vaccine approved in the U.S., the Johnson & Johnson shot, requires only one dose.
“As we wind down over the next three weeks, we will be closing the mass vaccination sites,” Balcezak said.
Instead, the hospital will rely on pop-up clinics in towns and cities across the region to continue to get vaccines in arms.
Balcezak and YNHHS top spokesperson Vin Petrini stressed the importance of hosting vaccination clinics with trusted community members like clergy to reach people who are still skeptical about getting a shot.
When asked for their thoughts on vaccination incentives — like free food, or money, for people who agree to get a shot —Petrinit said, “I think it’s terrific if it works. … I think anything that moves us in the right direction as far as vaccinations is a good strategy at this point.”
According to the state Department of Public Health, 61,759 New Haveners — or 46.42 percent of the city — have gotten at least one vaccine dose so far, and 52,312 city residents, or 40.16 percent of the city, are fully vacinnated.
