APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Leaders of Fox Valley hospitals are making their plea to the community to protect themselves against COVID-19.
Representatives of ThedaCare, Aurora and Ascension health systems, as well as the Winnebago County Health Department, held a news conference today to provide an update on the hospital situation.
They say hospitals have been operating at or near capacity during a surge of cases related to the more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Frank Mellon of ThedaCare said while the omicron variant is more contagious, the illness is often less severe. While hospitals are expecting people not to need care as long, the sheer number of people infected will put different pressures on the health care system.
As much as 50% of the community’s population could become infected, Mellon said.
Lynn Detterman of ThedaCare said the number of patients is causing strain on hospitals, causing people to be moved to different facilities and impacting people using the health care system for non-COVID-19 reasons. She also said most of the COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
She did say hospital officials are hoping the peak, while severe, will be short-lived.
