As of Thursday, the county reported 1,822 positive cases, with a seven-day rolling average of 921 cases per day. Bello said he believes the county may see up to 2000 cases per day as the omicron variant continues to spread. He added that despite breakthrough cases, getting vaccinated is the best way to stay safe and out of the hospital.
“Is the vaccine going to protect everyone from getting sick? No. But what the vaccine has done and continues to do is it keeps us alive. It keeps our hospitals functioning,” Bello said.
UR Medicine Strong Memorial Hospital reported 134 patients hospitalized with the virus as of Thursday, 45 of which are in the intensive care unit. Rochester Regional Health currently has 215 active COVID hospitalizations.
“None of them thought that they could get this ill from COVID,” said Strong’s chief medical officer Dr. Michael Apostolakos. He said the percentage of patients critically ill this year at Strong is much higher than this time last year, and those patients are younger and unvaccinated.
“Had they known how ill they could get from COVID they would have chosen to get vaccinated,” Apostolakos said while recalling conversations with his patients, “Most of them wish they could rethink that decision and go back in time and get the vaccine.”
Apostolakos said the hospital is also dealing with staff contracting the virus. He said--- although unlikely-- the resulting employee shortage could lead to a pause on essential surgeries.
“We're not close to that yet. But it could happen in the next couple of weeks if the surge causes increased admissions and loss of staff,” he said.
In November the hospital systems had to put a pause on elective and semi-elective surgeries due to the staffing shortage caused by the statewide vaccine mandate on healthcare workers.
To further combat these shortages Governor Kathy Hochul allocated 330,000 KN95 masks to Monroe County to distribute among frontline and health care workers, and all who interact daily with the public.
“These masks will help keep them on the job serving their clients and customers,” Bello said. He added that any remaining masks will be made available to the general public. Overall Bello said the message to the public is very simple,
“Let's get vaccinated. Let's get boosted, and let's stay alive,” he said.
