Hospital leaders across Western Pennsylvania are hopeful that a downswing from the coronavirus pandemic’s omicron variant appears to be here.

They reported decreasing positive case rates and hospitalized covid patients, a welcome reprieve from the onslaught around the holidays and beginning of 2022.

“That’s not to say there won’t be other variants,” said Dr. Carol Fox, chief medical officer at Westmoreland County-based Excela Health.

For now, there aren’t any new variants elsewhere in the world headed for the United States like omicron, said Dr. Donald Whiting, chief medical officer at Allegheny Health Network.

“There’s not a lot of concern about that, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen,” he said.

Neither they nor Dr. Donald Yealy, chief medical officer at UPMC, have a crystal ball to predict what might be next in the pandemic.

“I don’t know what will happen, but I know our response to it won’t change,” Yealy said.

In Westmoreland County, the seven-day average of new positive cases hit 703 on Jan. 18, according to state data. On Wednesday, the same measure was 177. Fox said there were more than twice as many covid patients at Excela Health’s hospitals during last month’s high point compared to Tuesday. There were 64 hospitalized patients in the county Wednesday, according to state figures.

Allegheny County has seen a similar drop — the seven-day average of new positive cases was 3,534 on Jan. 12. On Wednesday, it was 458, according to state figures. There were 351 hospitalized covid patients in Allegheny County Wednesday compared to 811 on Jan. 20.

Yealy said UPMC hospitals cared for about 1,100 covid patients during the peak, and that number now is less than half. Whiting said AHN saw a similar decrease after the health system’s hospitals treated nearly 400 covid patients at one time.

“It kind of went up fast, came down fast,” Whiting said.

Fox, Whiting and Yealy said the majority of those hospitalized with covid were not fully vaccinated.

While the covid burden is still high, it’s a more manageable level. But one problem still remains — staffing.

“The covid seems to be improving, but the staffing is about the same as it has been,” Whiting said.

Health care systems around the region and country have been contending with dual crises with covid and staff levels. Many have more open positions than they did a year ago as employees leave for a variety of reasons — better pay, stress or work in a different field, among others.

The infection surges the region has experienced over the past two years have helped health systems learn how to properly care for patients, use PPE and keep an adequate supply while improving testing abilities and offering vaccination clinics. Yealy said keeping a close eye on community trends in testing has been key in being nimble to respond quickly on a preparedness level to how the virus might take hold.

• Covid cases continue to decline in region

At the same time, the surges have strained employees who stay.

“I do think that really plays a significant role for people who’ve just said ‘I can’t take another hit like this,’” Fox said. “It’s just very stressful for people, so I think when you ask about is it sustainable, that’s where I see the difficulty.”

Fox, Whiting and Yealy stressed the importance of being vaccinated against the virus and remaining cautious by wearing masks indoors and other mitigation efforts. They urged people to trust the science behind the inoculations after seeing firsthand how it helped during the most recent surge.

“It’s how we know that vaccinations matter,” Yealy said, adding that on some days every critical covid patient at a UPMC hospital was not immunized.

This year, hospital leaders said they saw patients who were not as severely ill, thanks to the available vaccines and a variant that didn’t make people as sick, compared to the 2020-21 surge around the holidays. Fox said 5% of people who were hospitalized at Excela Health in January had gotten a booster shot and 23% had the two-vaccine series.

As more people gain some form of immunity — either through infection or a vaccine — Fox said she expects the peaks and surges to lessen and become few and far between. In Allegheny County, 70% of all residents are fully vaccinated. About 58% are fully vaccinated in Westmoreland County, according to state data.

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