A Bryan Health doctor says COVID-19 cases have been rising in Lancaster County for the past six weeks. Dr. Jim Nora is medical director of infection prevention and says the good news is the number of inpatients remains low. There were nine reported on Monday and Bryan has consistently been below ten hospitalizations.
Dr. Nora says there is only one primary variant circulating right now. “That is the Omicron BA.2 subvariant. This is a highly infectious form of COVID-19,” Nora says. “People who are not vaccinated are particularly vulnerable to that.”
Nora says the number of employee absences due to COVID-19 is increasing. “This virus is making it harder for us to care for patients when people get sick and get excluded from work.”
Nora is encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine if they haven’t yet. He says it reduces the chance of infections and reduces the chances of hospitalizations and death.