MUSC Health data show increases in emergency department visits for COVID

New data shows increases in Emergency Department visits for COVID across much of the MUSC Health system over the past week.

• In the Charleston area, there’s been a 20% increase in COVID diagnoses in MUSC Health’s adult Emergency Departments.
• Emergency Department visits for COVID in the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital rose 36%.
• In the Midlands, COVID visits were up 29%.
• In the Pee Dee region of MUSC Health, there was a 13% increase.
• In the Catawba area, Emergency Department visits at MUSC Health rose 75%.

Michael Sweat, Ph.D., leader of the COVID-19 Epidemiology Project at the Medical University of South Carolina, provided the data – and some context. “The overall number of cases is not huge, but it's the growth rates that get your attention. It suggests a lot of community transmission is happening right now. That’s not surprising. We see it every year.”

Sweat, a professor in MUSC’s College of Medicine, an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a former research scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been crunching COVID numbers since the early days of the pandemic. He’s familiar with the virus’ ebbs and flows. 

 

"I don't know if that has to do with vaccination patterns, some kind of dynamic system of variables, but every year in the summer, we get this wave. I don't know how long it'll last. It could kind of be a steep curve and drop off, or it might kind of chug along. I mean, almost nobody’s mitigating,” he said, referring to COVID precautions.

Sweat encouraged people in high-risk categories to consider mitigation efforts while cases are rising. That includes older people and people with certain health conditions. You can find a comprehensive list on this CDC web page.

The CDC is also reminding people to stay up to date with COVID vaccines, cover coughs and sneezes, wash hands often, clean surfaces frequently and take steps to breathe in cleaner air through open windows and air purifiers and by gathering outdoors.

People who test positive should stay away from others. The public has a prominent example of that right now: President Joe Biden, who tested positive for COVID earlier this week, is self-isolating in Delaware.

But the rules have eased a bit. In March, the CDC released updated recommendations for people with COVID, noting that we now have treatments that can lessen symptoms and reduce the risk of severe illness. “The recommendations suggest returning to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, symptoms are improving overall, and if a fever was present, it has been gone without use of a fever-reducing medication,” the agency stated.

Once people get back to normal activities, the CDC advises them to try to protect others for the next five days, taking measures such as wearing a well-fitting mask.

As for a couple of other COVID considerations, variants and symptoms, Sweat said there also have been some changes. “There's a whole host of new variants, but nothing dramatically crazy,” he said. Read more about so-called FLiRT variants here.

“And there's some hypotheses about symptoms seeming to shift some. There are more people who seem to be having gastrointestinal issues.” 

While South Carolina no longer tracks COVID cases, Sweat’s team continues to offer weekly updates that include public health recommendations, graphs showing Emergency Department statistics and more. His advice this week: “It’s probably important to be careful now.”