LAWTON – Latest figures from Comanche County Memorial Hospital and Lawton Public Schools indicate the number of COVID-19 cases is dropping.
The hospital had 18 COVID-19 patients as of October 19 with 14 of those being unvaccinated. Only five of those have been admitted to the intensive care unit, but all five of those ICU patients are unvaccinated. However, a week earlier, CCMH had 31 COVID -19 patients.
Hospital figures also show only five patients are waiting for a bed and fewer respirators are in use for the COVID-19 patients.
Heather Love, administrative director of safety, quality and education at CCMH, said the lower COVID-19 numbers have made staff members relieved.
“However, we’re not letting our guard down,” she said. “You never know what can happen overnight, literally.”
Love continues to encourage the public to receive the vaccine as well as booster shots which are currently available for some segments of the population.
“We have had a few deaths of vaccinated people, but most were elderly and needed that booster,” she said.
CCMH, like the rest of America’s hospitals, has lost several nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals since the virus hit its peak.
“Once a patient is intubated, there’s not a lot of hope and the staff has seen a high mortality rate and that takes a toll on people,” Love said. “We lost four COVID patients in one day and that made some staff (members) question if they were in the right field. We will need more nurses. That shortage will take years to overcome.”
In some cases, nursing students were unable to finish their clinicals since the pandemic began, which in turn, affected graduation rates. Other nurses left the hospital to become travel nurses, which pays more than typical hospital shifts.
“This won’t be fixed overnight and that’s not just a problem at CCMH. That’s a national problem,” Love said.
School numbers
Lawton Public Schools COVID-19 figures also are decreasing.
LPS numbers show 15 students remain isolated due to positive COVID-19 tests and two staff members are isolated. In addition, 37 students are quarantined because of a close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus.
LPS will continue with the mask mandate until mid-January because of the potential of an outbreak after students return from fall break, Thanksgiving break and the long Christmas break, Superintendent Kevin Hime said in a podcast.
Hime said district officials have been conferring with officials at the state health department who made the recommendation. Hime also thanked parents for supporting the mask mandate, which was implemented after Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai issued a temporary injunction that blocks a state law banning public school mask mandates.
The law was passed by the Oklahoma Legislature earlier this year and signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Sterling Public Schools Superintendent Kent Lemons was proud of his district which has only two students out of school because of close contact with a COVID-19 patient.
“Everyone else is in school,” he said. “We’ve had no more than six (students) out at one time this year.”
Sterling does not require masks, but does recommend students wear them. However, the recommendation has had little effect, the superintendent said.
“I see very few wearing them,” Lemons said.