'We Need Help,' Doctors Say As COVID-19 Fills Northeast Ohio Hospitals

CLEVELAND — Northeast Ohio hospitals need your help.

That was the message from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals on Tuesday. A group of doctors from both hospital systems urged Ohioans to get vaccinated, get booster shots, to abstain from large social gatherings, to wear masks in public and to wash their hands frequently.

The doctors' plea comes amid an unprecedented COVID-19 surge. The delta variant was surging in the region, driving unprecedented levels of hospitalizations and then omicron arrived, pushing the spike even higher. Positivity rates are the highest they've ever been in the region, according to Dr. Daniel Simon, chief scientific officer, University Hospitals. More COVID-19 patients are now being treated in University Hospitals than at any previous time.

He blamed Ohio's lagging COVID-19 vaccination and booster rates for contributing to Cuyahoga County's explosive growth in case numbers. The county has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 spread in the nation, with 199 cases per 100,000 residents, the New York Times reported this week.

The rate of positive tests, of people with symptoms, two weeks ago was 25 percent. It is now 50 percent. The vast majority of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units are unvaccinated — approximately 90 percent — said Dr. Raed Dweik, chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Respiratory Institute. The 10 percent of vaccinated patients in the ICU wards are mostly immunocompromised or battling another serious health condition, he added.

"These are alarming numbers and it's no wonder our hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients," Dweik said. He said masking has slipped considerably in Greater Cleveland and he asked Ohioans to wear masks during family gatherings and in public.

Omicron In Ohio

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that omicron is now the dominant strand of COVID-19 in the U.S. and in the Midwest. Dweik thinks the variant is now also the dominant strand of the virus in Northeast Ohio.

The timing of omicron's arrival in Ohio could not be worse, said Dr. Claudia Hoyen, pediatric infection control, UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. The holidays are here and family gatherings will abound. Meanwhile, hospitals are struggling to deal with the effects of the delta variant surge and omicron is already pushing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to unseen levels, she said.

She warned that hospital staff are exhausted. Doctors and nurses and other medical specialists have been grappling with COVID-19 for 22 months, she said, and they face another, even worse surge.

"We are in a much different position than we were even two weeks ago. We all need to be on guard because with the potential number of people becoming infected — even if the cases are less severe and we don't know if they will be yet — we are going to be overrun," Hoyen warned.