For the first time in months, health care officials are starting to sound optimistic about winning the battle against COVID-19.
More Nebraska hospitals Tuesday received shipments of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and started vaccinating their employees, including CHI St. Elizabeth in Lincoln.
Dr. Cary Ward, CHI Health’s chief medical officer, said the health system has received 7,000 doses of the vaccine and hopes to vaccinate up to 1,000 employees a day total between Omaha, Lincoln and the Grand Island/Kearney area.
CHI Health on Monday vaccinated a handful of employees at CHI Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy in Omaha, and Ward said there were no reports of any major side effects.
One of those first vaccine recipients, Dr. Adam Highley, said he had a "tiny, tiny bit of soreness" at the injection site but otherwise felt fine.
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"It feels like every other day," Highley said.
The feeling was much the same for Dr. Kevin Reichmuth, a Lincoln pulmonologist who was among the first people to receive the vaccine Monday at Bryan Health.
"I don't have any symptoms," he said Tuesday. "I got up and exercised like I normally do this morning."
The arrival of the Pfizer vaccine and the likelihood that another from Moderna will be approved for use in the U.S. this week has health care workers excited and optimistic that the health care system is closer to the end of the pandemic that has lasted for nine months.
But it's not the only reason.
A recent decline in cases and hospitalizations has provided a bit of a respite for officials at local hospitals.
"The current trajectory of our COVID patients really remains encouraging," said Bob Ravenscroft, Bryan's vice president of advancement.
As of Tuesday morning, Bryan had 66 patients with active COVID-19 infections at its two hospital campuses and another 11 who had the disease and are now testing negative but remain hospitalized. That's a 47% decline from two weeks ago and the lowest number of coronavirus patients Bryan has had in six weeks.
That tracks with hospitalization numbers statewide, which have dropped by more than 30% since hitting a peak Nov. 20.
The decline in COVID-19 patients and the relaxing of state directed health measures over the weekend have allowed Bryan and other hospitals to restart elective surgeries that were put on hold several weeks ago to free up bed space.
Bryan Medical Center CEO John Woodrich said the health system has reinstituted some elective surgeries, although it is still not scheduling elective surgeries that require more than a one-night stay or that require patients to be in intensive care during recovery.
"Our ICUs are still extremely busy, so we want to make sure we're being very prudent before we open up all elective surgeries," Woodrich said.
Ward said CHI Health has returned to doing elective surgeries at its hospitals as bed space allows, "and fortunately, we have the space to be able to do that right now."
"We've got a lot of patients who are anxious to have their elective surgeries and we've quickly filled up the schedule," he said.
The drop in overall case numbers and hospitalizations over the past few weeks are somewhat of a surprise, as many health officials had predicted there could be a spike related to gatherings around the Thanksgiving holiday.
But that does not appear to have occurred, and officials believe it is at least somewhat because of people heeding their warnings.
Reichmuth said the decline in cases is evidence of "enough people doing the right things" in terms of following health guidance.
CHI Health CEO Dr. Cliff Robertson said he couldn't necessarily pinpoint one factor in the decrease in cases. It could be individual actions, it could be the state directed health measures that were enacted or it could have been some of the mask mandates that many cities across Nebraska imposed over the past few weeks.
"But, you know, it doesn't matter, from my perspective," he said. "We're thrilled that, at least for now, we've seen the peak in terms of the number of folks hospitalized across the state."
However, he warned that now is not the time to get complacent.
"We can't take our foot off the gas at this point," Robertson said, noting that millions of people will remain susceptible to COVID-19 infections until the vaccines are widely available to the public, which won't be for another few months.
"We've got to continue to be diligent," he said. "But also I think we can begin to imagine that the worst of this could be behind us, now and in the not-too-distant future."
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