Ballad Health sees ‘summer surge’ of COVID cases

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Ballad Health has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases as the summer wears on.

Ballad Health Chief Infection and Prevention Officer Jamie Swift told News Channel 11 that the hospital system has seen a trend of COVID cases arising each summer.

“We’ve come to expect this every summer, and it seems to be pretty regular that we have this summer surge, as we like to call it,” Swift said. “And that’s not just here, that’s nationwide. We have really went from working very few cases in a week to anywhere from 50 to 90 cases a week again. So nowhere near what we had during the early pandemic, but certainly starting to see that summer surge.”

As of Friday, Swift said Ballad was caring for about 34 COVID patients in its hospitals.

“It’s a reminder that even as we learn to live with COVID, COVID still causes severe illness and death,” Swift said. “And we start to see those numbers go back up a little bit through the summer.”

Ballad Health expects that as a new vaccine nears circulation, a new strain of COVID will surface in the fall months. Swift encouraged people to get the latest vaccine available to them and take health precautions.

The surge in cases is not surprising, in Swift’s opinion.

“I think we’re learning to live with the peaks and troughs of COVID,” Swift said. “Honestly, I fully expected by July that we would see that summer surge. It makes sense. You have people getting back out, you have travel, you have lots of exposure.”

Swift said there are some situations where people may want to consider wearing a mask, depending on the environment. She also encouraged testing for anyone who thinks they may have COVID.

“COVID is out there. COVID can cause serious disease,” she said. “It can certainly cause, you know, long COVID is still a thing. We want people to be aware to certainly test so they know if it’s [turned] into something else. Because if they do qualify for antivirals, it’s really important that you get those early in the course of illness. And so we want you to test. If you need those antivirals, you can certainly get those from your health care provider.”

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