COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Prisma Health official recently said their treatment of patients with COVID-19 doubled in the last several weeks, especially in young people.
"Our hospitals our numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has doubled in the past 3 weeks," Dr. Scott Sasser said.
Dr. Scott Sasser, the incident commander for Prisma Health's COVID-19 response, said as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the state, their hospital is also seeing a similar increase in patients.
"Just as a point of reference, if we go back to May 28 across the Prisma Health footprint, if you will, we had approximately 65 patients that were hospitalized for COVID-19. As of last night (June 30) we have 204," Sasser said, "And that's in all of our hospitals across Prisma Health."
Sasser said the hospital is also seeing a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 positive patients over the age of 60.
"We've dropped from 68.2% of hospitalized patients in that age group down to 62.1%," Sasser said.
But he said they have seen an increase in younger COVID-19 patients.
"We are seeing a trend up for COVID-19 positive hospitalized patients that are between the ages of 20-39," Sasser said. "That percentage has gone from 4.1% to 11.2%."
Sasser said percentages doubling like that is concerning.
"With the state reopening I think we're just seeing the spread of the virus across all age groups," Sasser said. "I think we're doing what we can to protect older populations as well and we're seeing an increase in testing."
Testing has also shown the increase in younger folks getting COVID-19.
"We have seen an increase in positivity rate from 23.6% in March and April to 35.7 % through May through late June for the 20-39 age group," Sasser said.
Prisma Health facilities have completed nearly 63,000 test statewide.
Sasser said with the higher rates of younger people testing positive, he hopes people won't let their guard down this holiday weekend.
"As we move into the holiday weekend we want to make sure, we as health care providers, are partnering closely with our community and asking everyone to do their part," Sasser said.
Sasser also said Prisma Health hospitals are prepared and have plenty of resources.