Is the pandemic over or not?President Joe Biden sparked the debate when he declared it is, then Dr. Anthony Fauci quickly disputed the claim.“I think the truth is somewhere in between,” said TriHealth infectious disease expert Dr. Stephen Blatt. “I do think it’s time we learn to live with this virus.”Blatt said dealing with the pandemic and with the virus are two different things. “I think it’s going to be really hard to define when the pandemic ends because we’re going to be dealing with this virus forever,” Blatt said.“I think we’re moving in the right direction. I don’t think we’re there yet,” said the Health Collaborative’s Tiffany Mattingly.Right now, in this region, there are 177 people in local hospitals with COVID-19, 20 are in the ICU and six are on ventilators. That compares with the peak when there were 1,033 people in local hospitals with COVID-19, 196 in the ICU and 141 on ventilators.“Part of the question is, what does it mean that the pandemic is over? It doesn’t mean COVID has gone away," Mattingly said.

The omicron surge is pushing hospitals to capacity as they struggle to keep up with the highest number of COVID-19 patients on record.“We’re certainly at our highest water mark to date,” St. Elizabeth Dr. Jim Horn said.St. Elizabeth surpassed their highest number of COVID-19 patients set last year at 219. The new number set this week is 232.“It just means that everyone is extremely busy, and everyone is stretched to the max,” Horn said.Every facet of hospital operations is affected from pharmacy to supply chain to the thin ranks of the staff.“They’re tired, they’re demoralized, they’re emotionally stretched,” Horn said.There are so many health care workers out sick, even those who are not normally on the front lines are called into action to help.“Every, every hospital from our rural hospitals to our urban core hospitals are hit by this,” the Health Collaborative’s Tiffany Mattingly said.Mattingly said almost every hospital in the region is hitting historic high number of COVID-19 patients.“Definitely as bad as we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic. They’re operating at a whole new level of surge right now,” Mattingly said.

As the delta variant continues to rise, more people than ever are waiting in line over an hour for something no one really wants – a COVID-19 test.At the Gravity Diagnostic’s testing site in Covington, cars were lined up though the old IRS parking lot and around the outside of it Monday.“My granddaughter, she’s not feeling well,” said one woman coming into the drive-through site.“My daughter, from the school they say she maybe was exposed to some kid with COVID. So, we have to take a test for her,” said another woman in line.The Gravity site gives the gold standard PCR tests. People usually get results by midnight the same day they took the test.“I think we’ve all been surprised by how delta has changed things in the last six or eight weeks,” said Gravity Diagnostics CEO Tony Remington. “There’s a lot of peace of mind testing for just people going back to school, back to work, going to a Bengals game, going to a concert.”Remington said the test sites have been so busy, they’ve opened new drive-through sites at Northern Kentucky University, in Ludlow and at Buttermilk Pike for St. Elizabeth Hospital. Gravity is also opening up several other sites around Kentucky and Indiana.Take-home COVID-19 test kits are also available over the counter at many drug stores, if you can find them.The cost is about $24.00, but many stores are sold out right now.The over-the-counter tests kits are fast, but not as accurate as the PCR tests.Hamilton County Libraries are also giving free take-home tests as long as the last.“There are differences in the tests. The take-home tests are considered a screening vs a diagnostic test,” said the Health Collaborative’s Tiffany Mattingly.Mattingly said the key is keeping people from going to emergency rooms to get a test. “The prediction of where we’re going to peak is really difficult to anticipate. Right now, we know that we’re still climbing,” Mattingly said.

Rising COVID cases driven by the delta variant are already putting pressure on hospitals as some hit capacity over the weekend.“We’re seeing, not only our cases rise, we’re seeing our hospitalizations rise as well as intensive care admissions within the region,” said Hamilton County health commissioner Greg Kesterman.Kesterman said in three weeks, Hamilton County COVID cases went from averaging about 13 a day to averaging 71 a day.Regional numbers from the Health Collaborative show hospitalizations have jumped in one month from about 40 to more than 130. Now, 40 is the number of people on ventilators in the Southwest Ohio region.The numbers are lower than they were at the peak of the pandemic, but hospitals are already under stress. “Over the weekend, a couple of our hospitals hit capacity,” Kesterman said.“We have a very different starting point going into this surge. It will take less cases to put a strain on the hospitals,” said vice president of clinical strategies for the Health Collaborative Tiffany Mattingly.Mattingly said last year hospitals stopped elective procedures and other wellness efforts to make space for the oncoming surge. All of those procedures have returned.“We are definitely at a different stress point than we were last fall,” Mattingly said.Kesterman said the hospital system has room for more patients, but at any given time, a hospital could hit capacity. If COVID cases continue to rise, expect hospitals to reexamine those elective procedures again.“I think the hospitals are going to have to evaluate all of those modes of decompression to make sure we have room for all patients who need care,” Mattingly said.