centracare

The COVID-19 Omicron variant is in the St. Cloud community. That according to CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris. Morris joined me on WJON today. He says of the people they have been testing in the past 2 weeks approximately 30% are testing positive for COVID-19.

Last week's COVID-19 positive patients at St. Cloud Hospital and within CentraCare were the highest since last December. This week those numbers a coming down a bit. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON this week.

A new mental health initiative is underway in the St. Cloud area.

COVID-19 cases at St. Cloud Hospital are up again this week and are now at levels they haven't seen since late December of 2020. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me this week on WJON. He says CentraCare has 120 positive COVID-19 cases with 100 of them at St. Cloud Hospital.

It’s no surprise that early detection can help increase the treatability of illness and disease.

CentraCare is now taking appointments for patients eligible for the COVID-19 booster shots.

CentraCare issued a vaccine mandate for employees in August. CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON this week. He said in the past week they started the vaccination process of another 120 employees bringing their total vaccination numbers to just under 80% of their staff vaccinated.

Pfizer has already received FDA authorization to administer COVID-19 boosters or 3rd doses to eligible individuals. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON. He expects Moderna to received authorization as early as late next week with Johnson and Johnson to likely receive approval soon after that.

CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris says CentraCare and St. Cloud Hospital is "at capacity for all patients". Morris says they have approximately the same amount of COVID-19 patients within CentraCare and at St. Cloud Hospital as they had last week but with all other non COVID-19 care needs they just don't have the beds or enough staff to handle the pressure they are facing due to COVID.

CentraCare continues to break barriers when it comes to technology.

Last week CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON and said unvaccinated CentraCare employees would not be fired. That is still technically the case. This week when I talked with Dr. Morris he got into more detail as to what the result would be for employees who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

CentraCare is reinstating visitor restrictions due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.