(KNSI) – CentraCare Health is asking for a United States Air Force medical team to stay at St. Cloud Hospital for another month. CentraCare COVID-19 Incident Commander Dr. George Morris says the Joint Task Force Civil Support unit is scheduled to leave after Christmas.
“My hope is that our application for extension is considered, and we’ll be allowed to keep them here for another 30 days, which would get us deep into January.”
Dr. Morris says they need approval from Washington D.C. to keep the 23 medical support task force at the hospital.
“All the requests have to go to the federal governmental levels. And the reality is there are many other communities in the country that also need their help. So, we have been greatly appreciative. We think we had a reason to have them here.”
He says the hospital’s ICU has been at maximum capacity for months. Dr. Morris says the support from the task force has been a tremendous help.
“They’ve been a great benefit. They really have helped us extend care to people we otherwise would not have been able to get. And they’ve helped our staff feel like we’re listening to their voices. They’ve helped our staff realize that we are willing to do whatever it takes.”
Dr. Morris says he expects to see more COVID patients in the coming weeks.
“Our challenge is, we’ve seen these post-holiday, post gathering surges and we’re in one right now. We can call this a post-Thanksgiving surge and influenza has also picked up.”
He believes the region will see another surge after the holidays. St. Cloud is the 18th place where the task force has helped treat communities swamped by the pandemic.
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