Dr. George Morris

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.

ICU/Critical Care COVID-19 numbers remain high this week at St. Cloud Hospital and within CentraCare. That according to CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris. He joined me on WJON again this week. He says they have 44 positive COVID-19 patients at St. Cloud Hospital in their ICU/Critical Care unit with 41 of those on ventilators.

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.

Treatments of the COVID-19 virus have changed since St. Cloud Hospital and CentraCare was first faced with the challenge of working with COVID-19 patients in the spring of 2020. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON today.

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.

CentraCare is reporting 90-plus patients with COVID-19 throughout their facilities in Central Minnesota. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON this week. He says more than 70 of those are at St. Cloud Hospital.

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.

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 enacted a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine in August. Dr. George Morris says "we are not firing anybody". He says they are not using the vaccine mandate as an opportunity to fire anybody for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

CentraCare is reporting 38 people hospitalized with COVID-19 this week. Those numbers are up from 15 from 2 weeks ago. CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris says 33 of the 38 are at St. Cloud Hospital and 9 of those are in the ICU/Critical Care unit. Morris says 15 of the 38 hospitalized people are under 50 years old.