Summer Surge in COVID Cases Hits St. Cloud Area

(KNSI) – St. Cloud area doctors on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic say they see a surge in cases driven by low vaccination rates and the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Doctor George Morris is the CentraCare Health COVID-19 Incident Commander. He says earlier this summer, they had one patient hospitalized with COVID-19, but have seen a steady climb to “five inpatients, then 11, then 17, 20, and 25. And right now, we’re over 36 hospitalized patients throughout the CentraCare network. Thirty-two of those are at St. Cloud Hospital, and eight are in the intensive care unit.”

He says the Delta variant and a low vaccination rate are driving the increase because “it is more contagious, so it’s easier to transmit virus and in many cases, more virulent, causing more serious disease, especially quicker.” Dr. Morris explains that it’s different than the first strain “In this case, we’re talking about the initial version of COVID was able to spread maybe to one person, spread to two. There was an alpha variant that was responsible for the other surges, and with that virus, one person could spread to four people. Right now, with this Delta variant, one person can spread to either six or eight people.”

He says most of the patients CentraCare is seeing are unvaccinated, so when they’re exposed to the Delta variant, the illness is “very contagious, and very harsh, and causing a lot of disease.”

Dr. Morris is pleading with people to get vaccinated and not rely on their body’s natural immunity, “and you can put the air quotes on that ‘natural’ because there aren’t a lot of natural things about the damage that COVID does. By that I mean, it brutalizes some people’s bodies. For people that are severely impacted by COVID, it can cause long COVID syndrome, it can put them in the hospital, affect their heart, their lungs, their brain, their body, their skin, and then eventually lead to death. So there’s no question that vaccine-induced immunity is better and safer than COVID immunity due to previous exposure.”

He says the vaccine isn’t 100% effective against the Delta variant, but it’s better than no protection at all. “It truly was hope in a bottle, hope in a shot because we got vaccines that were more than 95% effective at stopping the virus spread. We got vaccines that were 99 plus percent effective in preventing death and that serious disease. Our challenge with this Delta variant is the vaccines are still good. They’re just not as good. Maybe 85-90%, which is lower but still tremendously effective.”

With the first day of school just around the corner, Dr. Morris expressed concern about pediatric cases of COVID-19 circulating through classrooms. “I expect this to continue, this surge that we’re in now. Our concern is that it’s just going to continue to grow. Kids are getting ready for school activities. People will be gathering more often; they’ll be coming back from travel.”

As of August 12th, the Minnesota Department of Health says Minnesota has surpassed 70% of adults 16 years of age and older with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 6 million total doses administered. The number of first doses administered per week is up 129% from one month ago.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Minnesota currently leads the Midwest in the percentage of the overall population who have completed their vaccination series (54.4%) and residents 65-and-older with at least one vaccine dose (93%). Minnesota is still one of only two Midwestern states to achieve President Biden’s goal to get 70% of adults 18+ at least one vaccine dose by July 4th.

Minnesotans who get their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine until August 15th can get a $100 Visa gift card.

KNSI News Director Jennifer Lewrenez contributed to this story.

___