Bristol Hospital Sees Increase In Coronavirus Patients

By Justin Muszynski, The Bristol Press

December 9, 2021

Mirroring a statewide trend, Bristol Hospital has seen a recent increase in coronavirus patients.

Hospital officials on Wednesday said they have admitted nine patients with covid-19 in the last week. This comes as state officials say Connecticut has well over 500 hospitalizations related to the virus -- the highest the state has seen since April.

Of the nine patients Bristol Hospital has administered in the last week, six of them were unvaccinated and three had received a covid-19 vaccination.

“It’s concerning to see the rate is going up,” said Dr. Andrew Lim, medical director of emergency medicine at Bristol Health. “The vast majority of people who test positive are unvaccinated.”

Lim also said the indoor nature of winter and holiday gatherings could be contributing to the spike in cases. It’s still too soon to tell how much of an impact the omicron variant may be having and how worried anyone should be.

“It’s pretty early to know how omicron will affect us from a public health perspective,” the doctor said, adding that there is optimism in the medical community that this latest variant is not as severe as other strains.

Bristol Health, Lim said, continues to use telehealth as a way to help stop the spread of the virus. One of the few FDA-approved treatments, monoclonal antibodies, also continues to be a useful tool in the fight against covid.

The quickest way back to normalcy, Lim said, continues to be getting vaccinated, though it’s difficult to say how effective the vaccine and other therapeutics, including antibodies, will be against omicron.

“I definitely understand hesitancy,” Lim said of those who have not received the covid-19 vaccination.

But the doctor noted that he has been vaccinated for about a year now. Tens of millions of others have also been vaccinated. If serious side effects were to be seen, it most likely would have occurred within three months of receiving the vaccine, Lim said.

“It’s not only about you,” he said. “It’s also about your family. It’s about the people around you.”

Justin Muszynski can be reached at 860-973-1809 or jmuszynski@bristolpress.com.