Preventing the spread
Submitted photos
Dr. Ed Mariano, internal medicine/hospitalist, receives his COVID-19 vaccine from Casiey Baxter.
Sarah Turner, EVS/housekeeping, receives her vaccine from RN Stacey Brown.
Registered nurses Madison Wagner, left, and Lacey Farrar pose after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Wagner and Farrar work in Northern Louisiana Medical Center’s COVID-intensive care unit.
Approximately 155 frontline workers at Ruston’s Northern Louisiana Medical Center have received their first injections of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The group includes doctors, nurses, housekeeping staff, food service workers and others who may come in direct contact with COVID patients. All received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
So far, none of the workers have experienced any side effects, NLMC Marketing Director Elizabeth Turnley said Friday.
The vaccination is a two-shot process spread 21 days apart. The group will receive their second injection in January.
More hospital employees are expected to be vaccinated in the coming weeks. NLMC surveyed its staff asking who would be interested in the new vaccine. Those numbers are turned into Louisiana’s Immunization Information Network, the group that handles facilities’ orders for the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Lincoln Parish continues to grow. As of noon Friday, the Louisiana Department of Health was reporting 2,557 confirmed local cases of the respiratory illness since the pandemic began in March.
Friday’s number represents a 21-case jump since Thursday. The parish has been averaging about a 20- case increase almost every day this month. The local COVID-19 death toll stands at 64.
Across the Lincoln Parish-inclusive state public health Region 8, 56% of the available hospital beds are full, though not all are COVID patients.
Turnley said NLMC still has a “double digit” number of patients in its COVID unit. She said while the number isn’t the highest the hospital has experienced, it’s also not the lowest.
As to ICU bed availability, as of Friday afternoon, only 15 beds were open across the 12-parish region. Some 88% of the region’s 127 intensive care unit beds were full, according to LDH.
But not all of those patients have COVID-19. Some are hospitalized for flu, pneumonia and other medical conditions.
Lincoln Parish Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Kip Franklin said additional rounds of personal protective equipment have been distributed to local healthcare facilities.
“Right now, as far as PPE, we’re going good,” Franklin said.
He said the increase in the number of local COVID cases is no surprise.
“This thing isn’t going away,” Franklin said.
