COVID-19 Hospitalizations Falling From 'Incredible Peak': WSHA

OLYMPIA, WA — After several "quite terrible" COVID-19 updates over the past month, local health care leaders and the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) say the omicron wave is now firmly on the decline.

At the WSHA's weekly COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, CEO and President Cassie Sauer said she was "very, delightedly happy" to report that, after weeks of record-breaking COVID-19 hospitalization rates, Washington is finally on the mend.

"You asked us in early December when we thought things would get better, and we said we hoped by late January or early February," Sauer said. "Here we in early February and things are indeed getting better."

Over the past week, Washington saw a rolling average of 304 new COVID-19 hospitalizations per day, down from 317 the week prior. Total confirmed hospitalizations also decreased 16.6 percent from 1,958 on Feb. 1 to 1,635 Monday. Western Washington saw greater improvement than Eastern Washington, though hospitalization rates have declined across the board.

"This is the first week in a while where we've been able to report to you that kind of decline," Sauer said.

Further reason for optimism: hundreds more health care workers have been able to return to work from COVID quarantine. One month ago, WSHA hospitals logged a record-high 808 staff out sick due to COVID-19 exposure or infection. As of Monday, that number has dwindled to just 108.

Declines in COVID-19 hospitalizations tend to lag a week or so behind the overall case count. That appears to be true with the current wave as well, as the latest Department of Health case count data has shown significant, if inconsistent, improvement over recent weeks.

Though the WSHA's briefing Tuesday began with a markedly brighter tone than previous updates — in which health care leaders shared concerns about overflowing hospitals, staffing shortages and crisis standards of care — the improvement does not mean Washington is out of the woods just yet.

"I want to be clear that better does not mean it's over. Cases are falling, which is terrific, but they are falling from an incredible peak, so they're still quite high," Sauer said. "We really don't want people to rip off their masks or go to big parties just yet."

That said, Sauer expressed optimism that Washington might have to endure just a few more weeks of the omicron wave.

With no apparent successor to omicron, that could mark the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Late last month, the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted that omicron would be the turning point, where COVID-19 becomes a seasonal nuisance instead of a crisis.

"Because Omicron is transmitted so easily, it quickly reaches its peak in affected countries and appears to taper off rapidly," IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said. "While an Omicron wave is probably unavoidable in every country, the reason for hope is what we believe will come in its wake: an extended period of high immunity levels and low transmission. As we look beyond the current Omicron wave, COVID will become a recurrent disease that can be managed by health systems, like other infectious diseases such as flu."

Related: Omicron May Herald The End Of The Pandemic: IHME

While America waits to see if that pans out, and if life can finally return to normal, local health leaders continue to stress the importance of COVID-19 safety protocols, like staying home when sick, getting tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms, wearing a mask in public and, crucially, staying out of the hospital unless you are seriously ill.

"Especially if you have no symptoms or mild symptoms, or you feel that you've been exposed, but you're just not sure, that's not the place to go to be checked out," Washington Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said at a DOH briefing Wednesday. "We'd rather that you contact your primary healthcare provider."