Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Jason Kozikowski gets his shot.
Sometimes “Covid breakthrough” sounds scarier than it really is.
That perspective was offered Thursday during a biweekly online pandemic press briefing held by Yale New Haven Health.
Overall, “the word we want to use today is ‘steady,’” said the hospital system’s president, Chris O’Connor. New Haven and the region have not returned to anywhere near the spread of Covid as experienced last year.
Yale New Haven’s two campuses currently have 69 Covid patients, out of a total of 132 systemwide in its seven Connecticut and Rhode Island hospitals, reported Thomas Balcezak, executive vice president and chief clinical officer of Yale New Haven Health, offered that. Of those 132, 48 patients, or 36 percent, are fully vaccinated — ie. “breakthrough” cases.
But there’s an important caveat to that statistic, Balcezak: Many come to the hospital for reasons other than Covid: “broken bones, gall bladder attacks, normal stuff that brings you to the hospital.” All patients are screened for Covid when they arrive at the hospital; that’s how many of these breakthrough cases were identified.
Most of those breakthrough patients — around three quarters — are either asymptomatic for Covid or have minor symptoms, Balcezak said. They still require isolation in order to limit the spread of Covid in the hospital.
He and O’Connor repeatedly urged people to get vaccinated as the strongest protection against serious illness; as the best way to limit Covid’s spread; and to help Yale New Haven treat the many other patients showing up at the hospital with non-Covid conditions exacerbated by delays in treatment.
Other briefing highlights:
• Delta variants now account for “over 99-plus percent” of cases at YNHH.
• Unlike in some other states and nations, New Haven has not seen a significant spike in pediatric Covid-19 admissions since schools reopened, Balcezak reported. “It’s a mystery to me what this is.” Not “a single individual” under 20 is currently hospitalized for Covid-19 in any YNHH hospital, he said. He noted that some of the new cases, including fatal cases, have included people in their 20s, reflecting how Delta has hit a younger cohort than previous variants among the unvaccinated.
• Over 91 percent of YNHH employees have now been vaccinated, with employee vaccination fairs “going well.” YNHH has instituted an employee vaccination mandate.
• YNHH has not seen any evidence of a once-feared “twindemic” of flu and Covid cases, given the absence of flu hospitalizations in 2020. The masking and social distancing have apparently helped contain flu this year as well. Balcezak urged people not to “let down their guards” about the flu. YNHH feels confident enough about the vaccine to allow people to receive expected Covid boosters and flue vaccines a day apart in coming months rather than asking people to space them out.
• YNHH is seeing no surge in Covid hospitalization comparable to the ones that required them to convert other facilities into intensive care units in 2020. It is wrestling with increased demand for beds for people with other diseases because of deferred treatment in 2020. Balcezak predicted the region will see continued “small outbreaks” for “some time, but “nothing like we’ve seen in 2020,” thanks to Connecticut’s relatively high level of vaccination.
“Our beds are full of non-Covid activity. We are not at a crisis mode at this level,” said Yale New Have Health President Chris O’Connor. “We have lots of levers to pull if those numbers change. We are confident of our ability to do so. The best thing that can happen to us as caregivers if for” people to get vaccinated, and wear masks and socially distance when needed.
The Connecticut Hospital Association recently reported that only about 2% of CoViD patients were fully vaccinated. Yet, CT DPH is sometimes reporting that about 25% of CoViD-19 hospitalizations are fully vaccinated. YNHH has reported a similar number. Is CT DPH, and, previously, YNHH been misleading by representing people infected with CoViD-19 but hospitalized for some other ailment as being CoViD-19 hospitalizations? Lamont recently tweeted the 25% number, based on CT DPHs tracking. A clarification is in order. If most of those 25% are not hospitalized due to CoViD-19, the vaccine is as effective as we wished. Moreover, the goal of our physical mitigation measures has been to flatten, not zero, the curve, to keep the healthcares care system from crashing. Lamont was rightly focusing on hospitalizations, not positivity rates. People get infected with all sorts of things. It's not a big deal if we can recover at home, or are totally asymptomatic and can carry on as usual even if infected.