‘Alarming’ spike in coronavirus hospitalizations has health officials concerned

A valley hospital is warning of an "alarming" shift in coronavirus metics – the number of patients hospitalized with coronavirus at Eisenhower Health doubled over the weekend.

Hospital officials said the number of infected people there has climbed steadily over the last week to 29. 20 new patients were admitted with coronavirus since Nov. 1.

"For us to suddenly double the number in the hospital, that's certainly very concerning because it's reminiscent of what we were seeing as we headed into the worst spike in the mid-summer after Memorial Day," said Dr. Alan Williamson, Chief Medical Officer at Eisenhower Health.

Riverside County remains well within its capacity for ICU beds and patients overall, but Monday the county saw the highest number of hospitalized coronavirus patients since August.

"Our hope is that this will taper back off again, maybe level out at 40, possibly 50 patients at the hospital, which I think we can manage reasonably well," Williamson said.

The news comes as drug maker Pfizer announced promising developments in its coronavirus vaccine trials, in which early analysis show it's more than 90 percent effective at preventing the disease.

Williamson said by comparison the flu vaccine is usually only about 60 to 70 percent effective, but still significantly reduces the severity of the influenza outbreak each year.

"It's very good news, except it is just an interim report," Williamson said. "There are still many steps that need to be completed for the FDA to even consider an emergency use evaluation and approval."

Still unknown he said is how long the vaccine's immunity will last. And it's still likely months from being widely distributed.

"We're gonna have to get through with what we know which is our social distancing, wearing masks, hand washing," Williamson said.

There are also what Williamson called potentially serious logistical problems with the vaccine. Right now, it needs to be supercooled and stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit. That could make rolling out hundreds of millions of doses a challenging thing to do.

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