Salem Hospital Sees Drop In Coronavirus Admissions

SALEM, MA — North Shore Medical Center in Salem was treating 8 coronavirus patients Monday, according to the Massachusetts Department Public of Health.

That was up slightly from Saturday and Sunday, when the hospital had admitted just six patients with COVID-19, but down significantly from Wednesday, when the hospital was treating 32 coronavirus patients, including three in its intensive care unit.

The decline provides some reassurances even as officials worry about an uptick in the number of active coronavirus cases across the state. On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker attributed the increase in recent daily reports to case clusters around Massachusetts, including an outbreak at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield

"We would prefer to see zero new cases of COVID, but we know that’s just not going to be the case until we have a medical breakthrough like a vaccine," Baker said.

Admissions for coronavirus at Salem Hospital jumped last week, peaking at 32 on Wednesday, after spending most of the month of July in the mid-teens. For the two weeks ended Monday, the average daily admissions of coronavirus patients was 16.8.

The city of Salem had 146 active coronavirus cases as of 4 p.m. on July 22. Since the first Salem resident tested positive for COVID-19 in March, there had been 652 confirmed cases in Salem and 32 Salem residents have died from the virus. That was up from July 15, when there were 138 active cases and 30 reported coronavirus deaths in Salem.

Dave Copeland covers Salem and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).