DANVILLE, Pa. — According to Geisinger officials, our area is seeing fewer positive COVID-19 cases than just about a few weeks ago.
Geisinger CEO and President Dr. Jaewon Ryu talked to the media at his weekly news conference about what the health care system is seeing in the region.
"We are still at concerning levels, but the good news is that over the last week to ten days, we have seen some leveling off and even down-trending," said Dr. Ryu.
According to Dr. Ryu, hospitalizations at Geisinger are down nearly 30 percent from what they were in December.
"The peak number of inpatients that we ever had was on December 27, and that was 350, and this week we are sort of hovering in the 220 to 250 range."
Dr. Ryu said that if the COVID-19 numbers continue on this downward trend, then the hospital will look to welcome back more people with non-coronavirus-related health issues.
"If we can keep getting the COVID activity lower, then we will be able to dial a lot of those services back up, which would be a good thing for all those folks who have those care needs."
He also updated the media on the hospital's vaccine efforts. Thousands of Geisinger health care workers have been vaccinated, and Dr. Ryu says it is working.
"We have actually been tracking what our employee positive test per day has been, and just recently, in the last ten days, we have seen that trend downwards. It has dropped by over 40%."
Dr. Ryu said there is not yet a timetable for when the vaccine will be available to the general public, but he did say the community should continue to mask and social distance even after receiving the vaccine.