ODESSA, Texas — Since the pandemic began, local hospitals have done their best to prepare for the spike of COVID cases we usually see in the winter season.
With Thanksgiving over and Christmas only weeks away, hospital leaders say they are going to continue to stay prepared but they are hopeful there won't be as high of a COVID spike this year, because now we have the COVID vaccine.
As airport traffic dies down and travelers return home from Thanksgiving, local hospitals are being mindful of a possible increase in COVID patients.
"We are seeing a steady amount of COVID patients being hospitalized in the last few weeks," said Dr. Rohith Saravanan, Chief Medical Officer at ORMC.
Dr. Saravanan says that every winter during the holidays they prepare for a possible spike in any case of respiratory illnesses, especially COVID this year.
"Every year hospitals prepare for winter season that usually brings a higher number of patients to the hospital, especially our pediatric community, specifically because of respiratory illness," said Dr. Saravanan.
However this year, he's hoping to see less of a spike compared to last year because of two big reasons. The first is that doctors now know how COVID interacts with the other respiratory illnesses like the flu, and the second factor is the presence of the COVID vaccine.
"We didn't have a vaccine last year, so those are the two major differences for this year. There could be more travel now than last year but we also have about 40% of our eligible population vaccinated against COVID," Saravanan said.
Despite the Thanksgiving season being one of the busiest travel days of the season, Dr. Saravanan is hopeful that with prevention like vaccinations, mask wearing and hand washing, there won't be a huge COVID spike during this holiday season.
"If we can teach our community to prevent it then there will be less that we'll need to do for the community when they get sick," said Dr. Saravanan.
As for Midland Memorial Hospital, so far they are still seeing a consistent number of cases in their hospitals and haven't noticed any spike in cases.