Less Than 40 Covid-19 Patients at SC Hospital [PODCAST]

CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON today. He's says their positive Covid-19 patients at St. Cloud Hospital and within CentraCare is down. He goes on to say for the first time in a longtime they have less than 40 positive Covid-19 patients at St. Cloud Hospital and they have just a "hand full" of patients in the ICU. He says the hospital is back to mostly normal handling patients for all sorts of issues which includes elective surgeries. Listen to our conversation below.

Dr. Morris and I talked about the Covid-19 rollout. He says "admittedly it hasn't gone as well as he had hoped". He says they continue to vaccine health care workers and long-term care facility residents that want the vaccine and have now added 65+ individuals and educators. He says they are reaching out to those who qualify and do not want people to floor their phone lines asking for an appointment because just isn't something they can do yet due to a lack of vaccine supplies.

He is optimistic that the Covid-19 vaccine will be available to the general public by late May or early June on their current timeline. He does say an approved Johnson and Johnson and Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine could change that timeline for the better due to an increased supply.

WJON listeners asked earlier this week about an inoculation gun or vaccine gun that was used years ago to vaccinate large amounts of military members and why that isn't being used now. Dr. Morris says this method was determined to be less effective than a needle and was intended for use with those having a fear of needles.

Dr. George Morris joins me weekly on WJON with those conversations available here at wjon.com or on the air Saturday's from 7-8 a.m.