Mount Nittany Medical Center is treating 41 COVID-19 inpatients as of Saturday, a record number that hospital officials expect will impact more of its services in the coming days.
The COVID patients currently hospitalized at the medical center are between the ages of 36 and 91, Mount Nittany Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nirmal Joshi said in a statement.
‘We continue to operate under our COVID surge capacity plan which includes continuous monitoring and additional measures to provide the best possible care for all of our patients, while closely following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for patient placement and care,’ Joshi said.
Mount Nittany first activated its surge capacity plan on Oct. 9 when it had 13 COVID inpatients and since then COVID admissions have soared. The medical center has admitted 117 COVID-19 patients in November — twice as many as in October and more than seven times as many as in September.
To manage capacity, Mount Nittany will be rescheduling elective surgical procedures requiring admission while COVID hospitalizations remain high. The record number of COVID-19 inpatients also is expected to have further impacts.
‘We anticipate that additional services may be impacted in the coming days,’ Joshi said. ‘We are doing what we can to continue providing as many of our usual services to the community as possible, but there are limits to what can be done as the number of cases continues to climb.’
Centre County reported 154 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, its highest single-day total in two months. The recent surge in cases locally comes as Pennsylvania has routinely set record highs throughout the month while seeing hospitalizations rapidly increase.
‘As we face these additional challenges, it is critical for everyone to closely follow COVID safety measures including social distancing, masking and frequent hand washing,’ Joshi said. ‘This is more important now than ever. We must work together to care for one another, especially our most vulnerable community members.’
